Treatment with intramedullary nails in tibial shaft fractures

Kim, Woo Il; Choi, Ik Soo; Lee, Seung Ho; Kim, Young Doo

Abstract

Recently, there is seen frequently the tibial shaft fracture due to the increased traffic accident & the high industry, and this fracture has many problems in a treatment because of nonunion, malunion, and infection. And so the methods of treatment is variable according to physicion. Intramedullary nailings are prefered for treatment of tibial shaft fracture. Between June, 1990 and December, 1993, we treated fifty four fractures of the tibial shaft with Ender nails(33 cases) and Delta nails(21 cases). The authors analyzed the effects of these two methods, and we obtained the following resutls. 1) Average operating time was 107 minutes in Ender nail and 109 minutes in Delta nail. In the average full weight-bearing time, postoperatively, was 8.7 weeks in ender nail and 8.5 weeks in Delta nails. The mean bone union time was 16.5 weeks in Ender nail and 16.8 weeks in Delta nail, and so there was no significant difference in bone union time between two devices. 2) The complications are four cases of delayed union(12.1%), three cases of superficial infection(9.1%), two cases of angular deformity(6.1%), and one case of checkrein deformity(3.0%) in the 33 cases of Ender nail, and two cases of delayed union(9.5%), one case of angular deformity(4.8%), and one case of superficial infection(4.8%) in the 21 cases of Delta nail. 3) In the 30 cases of Ender nails(90.9%), the functional results were exellent or good, and 19 cases of Delta nails(90.5%) were excellent or good.