Don’t be subtle: Use POCUS for hard to see fractures

A young man had clinically a distal radius fracture. The X-ray looked negative to myself and the radiologist. But with a little bit of fiddling I found the # on U/S. Before I would have said this was a Salter fracture through the epiphysis. POCUS clearly showed the # proximal to the epiphysis.

Another fellow fell and injured his second MC neck at the MCP. The X-ray to me looked pretty subtle but POCUS again clearly showed the fracture.

Note that on both these patients, I compared the other side to make sure this was a real finding.