Humeral Shaft Fractures and Radial Nerve Palsy: To Explore or Not to Explore... That Is the Question

Humeral shaft fracture with radial nerve palsy has been a subject of debate since this entity was originally described by Holstein and Lewis in 1963. As the literature provides support for almost any approach in treating patients with this injury, surgeons have no definitive literary guidance. To clarify how physicians are actually treating these patients, we surveyed practice tendencies in observation versus exploration of the radial nerve. In addition, we have integrated our survey results with the current literature to propose an algorithm directing treatment of these patients.