Wrist & Hand

Distal radius fracture

Distal radius fractures are described with a radiographic classification of joint involvement, and the result is followed with an upper-limb patient-reported measure and, in surgical series, a measured wrist score for motion and grip.

What you are actually deciding

A classification describes the injury; it does not report the outcome. Pair it with a patient-reported measure for what the patient can do, and add the Mayo wrist score only when the series needs measured motion and grip — it expresses both as a percentage of the other wrist, so it assumes that side is normal.

Patient-reported outcome measure1

QuickDASH Calculator11 items
Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and HandThe QuickDASH is an 11-item shortened form of the DASH that measures physical function and symptoms across the whole upper limb on a single 0 to 100 scale, where a higher score means greater disability.

Clinical calculator1

Mayo Wrist Score Calculator4 items
Mayo Wrist ScoreThe Mayo Wrist Score is a 100-point rating of the wrist made of four equal parts — pain, functional status, range of motion and grip strength, 25 points each — with the last two expressed as a percentage of the opposite wrist, and it is graded excellent at 90 or above through to poor below 60.

Classification system2

Thresholds that apply here

Published change thresholds across the instruments above. Check the population matches your patient before using a value — a threshold derived in a different cohort will mislead you.

Instrument	Type	Value	Subscale	Population
QuickDASH	MCID	8 points	—	Upper limb musculoskeletal disorders
QuickDASH	MDC	11.2 points	—	Upper limb musculoskeletal disorders
QuickDASH	MCID	15.91 points	—	Shoulder pain, physiotherapy
QuickDASH	MCID	~14 points	—	Rotator cuff repair

See the full threshold database for every instrument on the site.