Question:medium

Identify the bone numbered in the X-ray below that most commonly fracture when a person falls on outstretched hands ?
bone numbered in the X-ray

Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
Show Solution

The Correct Option is A

Solution and Explanation

Step 1: Think about where the load goes during a FOOSH. The palm hits the ground, force runs up through the carpus, and it concentrates at the lower end of the radius - the weakest link in that chain.
Step 2: So the expected casualty is the distal radius, marked as 1 in the image. A break here is the classic wrist fracture, causing quick swelling, bruising, tenderness and at times the dinner-fork deformity.
Step 3: Epidemiology backs this up. In the elderly, especially postmenopausal women with thinner bone, a trip-and-fall onto the hand is the leading cause of this fracture; in the young it follows higher-energy sport or road trauma.
Step 4: The famous eponyms - Colles, Smith, Barton, Hutchinson - all describe variants of this same distal radius break, confirming that bone 1 is the answer rather than the ulna or carpal bones.\[\boxed{\text{Bone 1 - distal radius}}\]
Was this answer helpful?
0