When you break your wrist, the goal of nonoperative treatment is to keep the bones aligned while they heal. However, many people worry about whether their bone will stay in the right place. A large review of 30 studies involving over 7,000 fractures found that about 43.4% of patients experienced a loss of reduction, which means the bone shifted out of its proper position during healing.
Several specific factors can make this shift more likely. For example, older age and certain types of bone damage significantly increase the risk. Specifically, patients over the age of 60 were much more likely to see their bones move out of place compared to younger patients. Doctors also found that a condition called ulnar positive variance—a specific measurement of how the forearm bones line up—was a strong predictor of poor alignment.
Other factors like severe bone fragments or significant initial displacement also played a role. While these findings help doctors identify who might need closer monitoring, the study notes that more well-designed research is still needed to pinpoint exactly which factors are the strongest predictors for every patient.
