Introduction: The Galeazzi fracture is a fracture of the middle to distal one-third of the radius associated with dislocation or subluxation of the distal radioulnar joint (DRUJ) associated with high energy trauma. Injury to the dynamic and static stabilizers of DRUJ if unnoticed or poorly treated may lead to chronic instability which in turn can cause chronic pain and disability due to stiffness, decreased grip strength, forearm rotation, and symptomatic osteoarthritis.
Case report: A 35-year-old gentleman sustained trauma after fall from a motorcycle presented after 2 months with radiology suggestive of midshaft radius fracture with dorsal DRUJ dislocation treated with open reduction, internal fixation with DRUJ reconstruction using a novel technique not described before in any literature. After 3 months, the patient had significant pain relief at the wrist joint and regained painless, near normal range of motion at the wrist joint with good hand grip. The patient showed improvement in radiological and functional scores.
Conclusion: Reconstruction of DRUJ using this novel technique provides good functional outcome including pain relief, improvement in hand grip and movements at the wrist and elbow joint similar to conventional techniques of intra as well as extra-articular tenodesis without causing donor site morbidity to the patient with lesser instrumentations and significantly reduced operating time.
Keywords: DRUJ instability; DRUJ reconstruction; Galeazzi fracture–dislocation.
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