Abstract
Radius is a critical bone for functioning of the forearm and therefore its reconstruction following fracture of its shaft must be anatomical in all planes and along all axes. The method of choice is plate fixation.
However, it is still associated with a number of unnecessary complications that were not resolved even by introduction of locking plates, but rather the opposite. All the more it is surprising that discussions about anatomical and biomechanical principles of plate fixation have been reduced to minimum or even neglected in the current literature.
This applies primarily to the choice of the surgical approach, type of plate, site of its placement and contouring, its working length, number of screws and their distribution in the plate. At the same time it has to be taken into account that a plate used to fix radius is exposed to both bending and torsion stress.
Based on our 30-year experience and analysis of literature we present our opinions on plate fixation of radial shaft fractures.