Surgical fixation with pins is no better than the traditional plaster cast for a dorsally displaced distal radius fracture that needs manipulation, a UK study suggests.

Lead author surgeon Professor Matthew Costa of the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxfordshire says the findings show that most patients can be treated with a moulded cast and expect similar outcomes to fixing the fracture with K-wires (Kirschner wires).

The trial was carried at 36 National Health Service hospitals. It included 500 patients aged 16 and older who had a dorsally displaced fracture of the distal radius which a surgeon said needed manipulation.

Professor Costa and his team randomly assigned the patients to receive a cast or surgical fixation with K-wires after manipulation of their fracture.