Abstract: Objective To compare the recovery of the radial rotation arch in the treatment of radial shaft fractures with steel plates and intramedullary nails. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 60 hospitalized patients at Dongping County People's Hospital from October 2021 to September 2023. All included patients had unilateral radial shaft fractures (with or without ipsilateral ulnar shaft fractures) and chose surgical methods, with steel plates or intramedullary nails as the main internal fixation methods for treatment.According to the internal fixation method, A total of 32 patients chose to use steel plate internal fixation.Record the surgical time, incision length, maximum radial curvature after surgery, fracture healing time, range of motion of elbow wrist joint, forearm rotation at 6 months after surgery, DASH score, Grace Eversman score, etc. for two groups of patients. Results All patients underwent forearm anteroposterior and lateral X-ray films at the Radiology Department of Dongping County People's Hospital after surgery. After observation and research, it was found that the intramedullary nail group was superior to the steel plate group in terms of surgical time and incision length, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference (P>0.05) between the two groups in terms of the fixed point value of maximum radius curvature. In terms of the ratio between the affected and healthy sides, there was no statistically significant difference (P>0.05) between the two groups in terms of fracture healing time and elbow wrist joint range of motion (last follow-up). There was no statistically significant difference (P>0.05) between the two groups in terms of forearm rotation (pronation and supination) in the neutral position at 90 ° elbow flexion 6 months after surgery. There was no statistically significant difference (P>0.05) between the two groups in terms of DASH and Grace Eversman scores. Conclusion Both internal fixation methods for treating radial shaft fractures can achieve good recovery of the radial rotation arch. The choice of intramedullary nail treatment has a smaller incision and shorter surgical time compared to steel plate treatment.

Key words: radial shaft fracture, radial rotating arch, steel plate, intramedullary nail