Podcast 538:  Low Maintenance Boxer’s Fracture

<p><strong>Contributor: Jared Scott, MD</strong></p> <p><strong>Educational Pearls:</strong></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A distal 5th metacarpal neck fracture is often referred to as a “boxer’s fracture” and a common fracture encountered in the emergency department</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Splinting with an ulnar gutter splint is the typical management of uncomplicated boxer’s fractures</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A recent study randomized patients to buddy taping or ulnar gutter splint for uncomplicated Boxer’s fractures.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Similar functional and pain outcomes were found at follow-up, and those in the buddy taping group returned to work more quickly.  </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">One limitation was nearly 20% of study patients were lost to follow up</span></li> </ul> <p><strong><em>Editor’s note: remember - this only applies to a true boxer’s fracture, which is a <span style= "text-decoration: underline;">distal 5th metacarpal neck fracture</span>, not just any 5th metacarpal shaft fracture</em></strong></p> <p><strong>References</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 10pt;">Richard Pellatt, Igor Fomin, Carli Pienaar, Randipsingh Bindra, Michael Thomas, Ezekiel Tan, Cindy Mervin, Ping Zhang, Gerben Keijzers. Is Buddy Taping as Effective as Plaster Immobilization for Adults With an Uncomplicated Neck of Fifth Metacarpal Fracture? A Randomized Controlled Trial, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Volume 74, Issue 1, 2019, Pages 88-97,</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Summarized by Will Dewispelaere, MS4 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD</span></em></span></p> <p><br /> <br /></p>