Case Presentation
A 9-years old male patient brought to the ED by his parents because of the right forearm pain. The patient is alert, oriented, and moderately in distress. He described that he stepped on the ball and fell while playing soccer with his friends. He denies any other injury, loss of consciousness, etc.
Physical Exam
The patient complaints right forearm pain, especially distal 1/4 of the radius. There was no deformity or swelling recognized on inspection.
The patient refuses any movement on the right arm because of pain during the movement, especially in rotational movements. He prefers to stay in the rest position, as shown in the picture.
There was no visible deformity and swelling in the inspection. However, the patient described palpation tenderness over the forearm, especially point tenderness over the distal 1/4 – 1/5 of the radius. The patient also described minimal pain on elbow and wrist movements. The neurovascular examination was unremarkable. There are no other findings regarding trauma. Patient parents deny any disease, medication, operation, etc. He has received 250 mg paracetamol in the school after consultation with the family. However, he still shows distress because of pain.
After the physical exam, 200 ibuprofen was given. X-ray is planned, and musculoskeletal ultrasound was applied while he waits for an X-ray.
We used Butterfly iQ to investigate the radius by using musculoskeletal settings. The ultrasound showed periosteal discontinuity with a 2-3 mm step-off sign at the distal radius.
Diagnosing fractures with ultrasound
Ultrasound showed high pooled sensitivity (91%) and specificity (94%) (Schmid et al., 2017). It is a very effective modality, especially in the detection of long bone fractures such as humerus, forearm, tibia, fibula, etc.
In forearm fractures, its’ sensitivity is between 64 and 100%, its’ specificity is between 73-100% (Katzer et al., 2016). Besides, ultrasound provides 25 minutes earlier diagnosis advantage compared to other modalities, namely X-rays. Ultrasound’s effectiveness has elbow, been shown in many articles, its’ best performance is on diaphysis fractures of long bones (Weingberg et al., 2010).
After the detection of Torus (Buckle) fracture by ultrasound, the patient was sent to X-ray in order to investigate elbow, forearm and wrist in more detail. X-rays showed Torus fracture at the distal radius, which the diagnosis aligned with the ultrasound result.
AP X-ray showed minor periosteal step-off/bulging on both sides. Lateral X-rays showed periosteal discontinuity with a 2-3 mm step-off on the dorsal side of the radius.
The final diagnosis of the patient was Torus (Buckle) fracture.
A long arm splint was applied in the ED because of his elbow and wrist pain. The patient discharged with pain medication, ice and elevation recommendations. On the 4th day, the patient visited the orthopedic clinic, and his splint changed to short arm splint. He was pain-free on the elbow and wrist.
References
- Schmid GL, Lippmann S, Unverzagt S, Hofmann C, Deutsch T, Frese T. The Investigation of Suspected Fracture-a Comparison of Ultrasound With Conventional Imaging. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2017 Nov 10;114(45):757-764. doi: 10.3238/arztebl.2017.0757. PubMed PMID: 29202925; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5729224.
- Katzer C, Wasem J, Eckert K, Ackermann O, Buchberger B. Ultrasound in the Diagnostics of Metaphyseal Forearm Fractures in Children: A Systematic Review and Cost Calculation. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2016 Jun;32(6):401-7. doi: 10.1097/PEC.0000000000000446. Review. PubMed PMID: 26087441.
- Weinberg ER, Tunik MG, Tsung JW. Accuracy of clinician-performed point-of-care ultrasound for the diagnosis of fractures in children and young adults. Injury. 2010 Aug;41(8):862-8. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2010.04.020. Epub 2010 May 13. PubMed PMID: 20466368.
