Comparison of ulnar elongation and radius shortening in keinbock's disease patients

There are controversies about the surgical approach for patients with Keinbock’s disease. The aim of this study is to compare ulnar elongation and radius shortening in treatment of these patients. We design a clinical trial on 21 diagnosed patients with stage 2 Keinbock’s disease. We randomly separated these patients in two groups. The first group was treated with ulnar elongation and the other with radius shortening. We followed the patients radiological while physical examination for union or post operation complications was achieved. The treatment outcomes were analyzed in each group by sign test and between two groups by Fisher's exact test. 11 patients underwent radius shortening and 10 were operated by ulnar elongation. Age and sex did not differe significantly between groups. Surgical approach outcomes did not show statistical significant difference between two groups but the results were better in radius shortening technique. Although we could not find any differences between these two groups, it revealed that the radius shortening technique has preferred outcomes to ulnar elongation. We suggest further studies with more samples.