I fell over the weekend (tripped over a garden hose) and really dinged up my wrist. Trying to decide if the splint I bought at the grocery store is all I need or if I should have a cast put on the arm. How do I know which one works better?
You may need a physician to advise you. Immobilizing the forearm/wrist may not be advised at all. Some injuries heal better and faster with movement rather than restriction. Other injuries (fractures, of course and ligamentous damage) do require a period of immobilization to reduce load and stress on the bone or soft tissue) and to allow for healing. An examination and/or X-ray may be the best way to get an accurate diagnosis and to guide treatment more specificially. When immobilization is recommended, the question you asked invariably comes up: should I use a splint or is a cast better? If the cast is used, should it be a long arm cast (above the elbow including wrist) or short arm cast (below the elbow)? If a splint is used, which one is advised: short arm splint, sugar tong splint, or long arm splint? For those who have never heard of a sugar tong splint, it is much like the long arm splint in that it includes (covers) both the elbow and the wrist. The sugar tong splint does allow elbow motion (flexion and extension), which the long arm splints and casts do not allow. That brings us back to the first question -- which immobilizer to use. Some of this may depend on where the injury is located (in your case, you said it is the wrist), the severity of the injury, and the damage done (e.g., torn ligaments, broken bone, strained muscles or tendons). A second major consideration is whether or not forearm rotation (palm up called supination/palm down called pronation) should be restricted or allowed. The results of a recent study from South Korea may help provide some help in answering the question of which way to go: cast or splint. Healthy adult volunteers (ages 23 to 66) participated. Forearm rotation was measured using a specially designed goniometer (device used to measure joint motion). Measurements of pronation and supination were recorded without a cast or splint. The same measurements were then taken with the arm in each one of the different immobilizers. Four observations were made: