Clinical study of five-pointed star lattice sutures in treatment of patellar fractures / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore a simple and effective operative procedure for treatment of pa-tellar fractures.Methods The clinical data of 108 patients (including 76 males and 32 females) with patellar fractures were analyzed.The age of the patients ranged from 18 years to 82 years.There were 67 patellar fractures on the right extremities and 41 on the left.Fracture types included transfractures in 43 patients, comminuted fractures in 54, torn fractures in eight and longitudinal fractures in three.Period from injury to operation ranged from 3 hours to 10 days.During operation, the broken patella was exposed for reduction and temporary pliers fixation;then, a five-pointed star woven with two absorbable sutures was placed on the broken patella, two semi-circular sutures around the patellar edge were made with su-tures which were through five points of the five-pointed star.When two sutures were pulled and knotted,the five-pointed star was also stretched to fix the patellar fractures firmly.Models of transverse patellar fractures were made in 20 knee joints of catties, which were divided into two groups randomly.Patellar fractures in Group A were fixed with five-pointed star lattice sutures and those in Group B with AO inten-sion bands.Loading test was performed on quadriceps femoris with materials test system for measuring the width of each fractured patella after the test.Results All patients were followed up for 6-60 months (mean 20 months) , which showed that all patellar fractures were healed.According to Bostman scoring system, the efficacy was excellent in 76 patients and good in 32.The experiment showed no statistical difference in the fracture disjunction distance between two methods (P > 0.05).Conclusion For treatment of patellar fractures, five-pointed star lattice sutures have the advantages of simple operation,reliable fixation, early postoperative exercise, fast recovery, satisfactory outcome and free need of reoper-ation for removing internal fixation.