Clinical study of expert tibial nail in treatment of distal tibial fractures / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the clinical effect of expert tibial nail (ETN) in the treatment of distal tibial fractures. Methods From October 2007 to June 2008,ETN was performed in 13 patients with distal tibial fractures. There were eight males and five females, at age range of 25-47 years (33.8 on average). According to AO/ASIF classification, there were three patients with 43-A1 fractures, four with 43-B1 fractures, four with 43-B2 fractures and two with 43-C1 fractures. All the patients were with close fractures except for three patients with Gustilo-Anderson type Ⅰ fractures. Their clinical data were analyzed for assessing the clinical effect of ETN. Results All patients were followed up for a mean time of 8.4 months (range 3-13 months), which showed that all the fractures obtained stable fixation and sound healing, with no complications like breakage of ETN, wound infection, fracture nonunion or limb shortening. According to Johner-Wruhs standard, the functional results were excellent in 10 patients and good in three. Conclusion ETN has advantages of minimal invasion, shorter operation time, stronger fixation,better soft tissue protection and better functional recovery for distal tibial fractures in comparison with traditional open reduction and buttress plate fixation.