Forearm fractures: treatment by rigid fixation with early motion.

Sixty-four adult patients with ninety-two acute diaphyseal fractures of the forearm were treated with plate-and-screw fixation. In these patients, we analyzed the effect of early active postoperative motion. Patients with open fractures and those with fractures of both bones of the forearm lost significantly more rotation of the forearm, irrespective of treatment, compared with the other groups of patients in our series. A program of early active motion without immobilization increased the range of motion of the forearm in patients with fractures of both bones. However, this was not the case in patients with single-bone (radial or ulnar) fractures.