by AceMedEd

Teach card · keep it in your scrub pocket

Distal radius fracture

Ask during the case

  1. On the reduction films or fluoroscopy: "What three measurements are we restoring on the PA and the lateral, and roughly what's normal for each?"
  2. During the approach: "Whose sheath are we in? What's just radial to us, and what's running along the ulnar side of this tendon?"
  3. With the plate on the bone: "Where's the watershed line, and how will we check that no distal screw is too long dorsally?"

Point at: the floor of the FCR sheath, then FPL, then the radial border of pronator quadratus, as you go through each layer.

End of day: "Redraw the volar approach layers and the three PA and lateral lines for me." Two minutes, no notes.

Where this kit and your technique differ, yours wins.

Send this to your students

The night before. They prep alone, redraw at turnover, and get a cold check tomorrow morning. They won't see these questions.

Open the student page

Reviewed by Mehdi “AC” Talle, D.O., November 2026. Sources: Netter, Gray's Anatomy and Hoppenfeld's surgical exposures, with Rockwood and Green for fractures. Teaching schematic, not to scale; anatomy and technique vary. Management and indications are left to you on purpose.