Outcome assessment of intra medullary nailing in proximal tibial fractures

Abstract

Purpose: Intra-medullary nailing is now considered as a gold standard in the treatment of diaphyseal fractures of tibia. But scientific literatures do not give consistent results on this. The present study is being undertaken to evaluate the results of intramedullary fixation of fractures of proximal tibia with or without intra¬articular extension Methods: Forty cases of proximal tibia fractures with or without intra¬articular extension treated by intra- medullary nail in the department of Orthopaedics. over a period of five years were studied. Only the cases which could be followed up for at least four months or till fracture union were considered for final evaluation. Results: Average age of our patients was 45 years, most were males (85%). Majority of the fractures were closed (52.5%) having of intra-articular extension (65%). All the closed fractures united at an average of 3.1 months and compound fractures united at an average of 3.9 months. Nonunion was 3.3% and 9.9% infection was seen in open fractures. Average range of motion at knee joint was 111.5°. Two cases had flexion of less than 90°. Conclusions: In the literature, no studies have been reported with nailing in the metaphyseal fractures of tibia. The results obtained with nailing in the metaphyseal fracture of tibia gives good results with acceptable complication rate and has proved superior to other methods available today.