Why don't they put a cast on a broken wrist in the E.R? UPDATE Post 45, pg. 3

[PrincessShmoo]

My second thought was, it may be due to the swelling? and not the Dr? When I broke my ankle I had to wait for the swelling to subside..Just a thought

Exactly so. For the most part, once you make it to the emergency room, the swelling has not reached the maximum it's going to do. If they put the cast on before the swelling has reached the largest it's going to be , it will cut off blood flow. And they'll have to cut the cast off and re-do it.

I know, that's how it was explained to me. And they were totally correct. They just put a splint on it in the ER and told me to come back in two days. It got massively large, but was going down when I returned.