ABSTRACT
Objective: The purpose of this study was to have a comparison of frequency of infection between two procedures i.e immediate intramedullary nailing and external fixation in the treatment of type II open fracture of shaft of tibia
Study Design: The study design was a randomized controlled trial
Place and Duration of Study: The study was done at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital Lahore over 1-year period from January 2017 through December 2017
Methodology: This included 40 patients of both genders aged between 19-51 years with type II [Gustilo and Anderson] open fracture of shaft of tibia. These patients were randomly divided in two groups with draw methods with AandB Groups. The patients who were put in group A were treated with External fixator with two half pins on either side of the fracture and patients with Group B allocation were treated with intramedullary nailing. The Frequency of infection was noted and compared between two groups in first 4 weeks after injury. Before including each patient in study a written informed consent was taken
Results: The age of the patients ranged from 19 years to 51 years. There were 32 [80.0%] male and 8 [20.0%] female patients in the study cohort with a male to female ratio of 4:1. Infection was observed in 3 [7.5%] patients. The frequency of infection with IM nail was lower than that of external fixator [5.0% vs. 10.0%; p=0.759]. Similar insignificant difference was observed across various age and gender groups
Conclusion: Frequency of infection was lower in intramedullary nailing group as compared to external fixation group so immediate intramedullary nailing is preferred method in type II open tibial fractures