Radiographic results (dorsal tilt, radial inclination, and radial shortening) after unstable dorsally displaced DRFs are significantly better in patients treated by ORIF using a volar fixed-angle plate rather than those treated by cast immobilization (P < 0.05). At a mean follow-up time of 4 years and 7 months, the clinical outcomes of active range of motion, the PRWE, DASH, and Green and O'Brien scores do not differ between the 2 methods of treatment. The pain level was significantly less in the CAST group (P < 0.05), and this group experienced no complications. There was no difference between the subjective and functional outcomes for the surgical and the nonsurgical treatments in a cohort of patients older than 70 years. Unsatisfactory radiographic outcome in older patients does not necessarily translate into unsatisfactory functional outcome. Nonoperative treatment may be the preferred method of treatment in this age group.

The ability of cells to readjust their volume after swelling, a phenomenon known as regulatory volume decrease (RVD), is a fundamental biological achievement guaranteeing survival and function of cells under osmotic stress. This article reviews the mechanisms of RVD in mammalian cells with special emphasis on the activation of ion channels during RVD.

Internal screw fixation of nondisplaced scaphoid fractures had a shorter time to bony union and the patients returned earlier to work compared with cast immobilisation. Although it is assumed that operative treatment is more expensive, in this study the cost was not found to be higher.

Cell volume alterations are involved in numerous cellular events like epithelial transport, metabolic processes, hormone secretion, cell migration, proliferation and apoptosis. Above all it is a need for every cell to counteract osmotic cell swelling in order to avoid cell damage. The defence against excess cell swelling is accomplished by a reduction of the intracellular osmolarity by release of organic- or inorganic osmolytes from the cell or by synthesis of osmotically less active macromolecules from their specific subunits. De-spite the large amount of experimental data that has accumulated, the intracellular mechanisms underlying the sensing of cell volume perturbations and the activation of volume compensatory processes, commonly summarized as regulatory volume decrease (RVD), are still only partly revealed. Moving into this field opens a complex scenario of molecular rearrangements and interactions involving intracellular messengers such as calcium, phosphoinositides and inositolphosphates as well as phosphoryla-tion/dephosphorylation processes and cytoskeletal reorganization with marked cell type- and tissue specific variations. Even in one and the same cell type significant differences regarding the activated pathways during RVD may be evident. This makes it virtually im-possible to unambigously define common sensing- and sinaling pathways used by differ-ent cells to readjust their celll volume, even if all these pathways converge to the activa-tion of comparatively few sets of effectors serving for osmolyte extrusion, including ion channels and transporters. This review is aimed at providing an insight into the manifold cellular mechanisms and alterations occuring during cell swelling and RVD.