Distal radius fractures are one of the most common types of fractures, accounting for around 25% of fractures in the pediatric population and up to 18% of all fractures in the elderly age group. Although the pediatric and elderly populations are at the greatest risk for this injury, distal radius fractures still have a significant impact on the health and well-being of young adults. Data from the past 40 years has documented a trend towards an overall increase in the prevalence of this injury. For the pediatric population, this increase can likely be attributed to a surge in sports related activities. The growth of the elderly population and a rise in the number of active elderly are directly responsible for the increase seen in this age group. Understanding the epidemiology of this fracture is an important step towards the improvement of the treatment strategies and preventative measures which target this debilitating injury.

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Hand aesthetics in general and aesthetic refinements of soft-tissue coverage of the hand in particular have been increasingly considered over the past few years. Advancements of microsurgery together with the traditional methods of tissue transfer have expanded the armamentarium of the reconstructive surgeon, thus shifting the reconstructive paradigm from simply ‘filling the defect’ to reconstructive refinement to provide the best functional and aesthetic results. However, drawing the boundary between what does and what does not constitute ‘aesthetic’ reconstruction of the hand is not straightforward. The selection amongst the vast amount of currently available reconstructive methods and the difficulties in objectively measuring or quantifying aesthetics has made this task complex and rather arbitrary. In this article we divide the hand into several units and subunits to simplify our understanding of the basic functional and aesthetic requirements of these regions that may ultimately bring order to complexity.