Abstract
Background Wrist arthroscopy has become a commonly used tool for the management of adults with
distal radius fractures (DRFs), although its implementation requires technical competence.
This systematic review and meta-analysis appraised the available evidence concerning
the contribution of wrist arthroscopy to the functional and radiological outcomes
of patients with DRFs operated with arthroscopic assistance.
Methods Randomized control trials were identified through five principal electronic databases
on May 31, 2022: Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCO, Embase, and PubMed. Two authors independently
performed the search and data extraction and assessed risk of bias (RoB) using the
Cochrane RoB tool.
Results A total of 1,780 relevant abstracts and citations were extracted in the preliminary
search, which yielded 6 trials that met the eligibility criteria, and 3 studies were
included in the quantitative synthesis. The overall pooled mean difference (MD) estimate
showed no significant difference in the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand
scores between surgical groups with and without arthroscopic assistance (MD = 0.77
points, 95% confidence interval = −6.58 to 5.03, p = 0.79), with substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 85%).
Conclusion There was low-quality evidence that wrist arthroscopy conveyed not clinically or
statistically significant difference to functional outcomes of patients with DRFs.
However, our findings are limited by the numbers of studies included and lack of long-term
follow-up, although they do provide a good starting point for future quality research.
Keywords arthroscopy - arthroscopy assistance - distal radius fracture - randomized controlled
trial - meta-analysis
