Wrist fractures may do just as well with a cast as with surgery

It’s enough to make you wince just to think about bending your wrist back so far that it breaks. It’s an injury common in young, active people after a fall or a push; some get surgery and some heal in a plaster cast. A British study has found that putting the wrist in a cast was as good as surgery at healing fractures of the scaphoid bone; surgery was offered at six weeks to those in casts if healing was not progressing. Among 439 patients seen in 31 hospitals over three years who were randomly assigned to surgery or a cast (including 17 who switched from cast to surgery), evaluations were similar a year later when they were asked about pain and missing days of work