In light of the Norwegian Orthopaedic Association's wish to prepare guidelines for treatment of distal radius fractures, we have reviewed the knowledge base for the provision of such treatment. The paper is based on systematic reviews of treatment of distal radius fractures from literature search in the following databases: the Cochrane Library, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE Cochrane), the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) database, PreMedline, Medline and Embase. There is evidence for recommending percutaneous pinning of unstable, dorsally displaced distal radius fractures rather than conservative treatment, but which pinning method is best remains uncertain. There is also documentation to support the use of external fixation rather than conservative treatment. There is insufficient documentation available to draw conclusions regarding the relative efficacy of the various methods of external fixation, but external fixation in combination with adjuvant pinning of the fracture fragment enhances the result compared to external fixation alone. The evidence indicates that plates may enhance functional short-term results for unstable distal radius fractures compared to external fixation. There is evidence in support of differentiated treatment of distal radius fractures. However, many questions remain unanswered, and good prospective, randomised multi-centre trials are needed.