Clinical efficacy of locking plate versus artificial joint replacement for the treatment of comminuted proximal humeral fractures in the elderly / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare and analyze the clinical efficacy of locking plates versus artificial joint replacement for proximal humeral complicated fractures.Methods The retrospective data of 200 cases with locking plate or artificial joint replacement for the treatment of comminuted proximal humeral fractures were collected from February 2013 to July in our hospital.Patients were divided into locking plate group (n =114) and artificial joint replacement group (n =86) according to the treatment.The pain,functional recovery,activity,anatomical position,complications and Neer score after treatment were compared between the two groups.Results In artificial joint replacement group,Neer score was excellent in 34 cases,good in 23 cases,fair in 25 cases,poor in 4 cases,and the excellent and good rate was 66.3％ (57/86).In locking plate group,Neer score was excellent in 53 cases,good in 47 cases,fair in 10 cases,poor in 4 cases,and the excellent and good rate was 87.7％ (100/114).The excellent and good rate was higher in locking plate group than in artificial joint replacement group (x2 =13.35,P＜0.001).The scores of pain,functional recovery,activity and anatomical position were (26.9 ± 8.5),(22.4 ± 7.1),(19.8 ± 5.5) and (8.0 ± 1.8) respectively in locking plate group,and (24.8±10.2),(20.2±6.7),(18.1±6.6) and (7.9±2.1) respectively in artificial joint replacement group.There were significant differences in scores of functional recovery and activity between groups (t＝ 2.22 and 1.99,P =0.014 and 0.024),while no significant differences were found in scores of pain and anatomical position (t=1.59 and 0.36,P＝0.057 and 0.359).There were 2 cases with ankylosis,1 case with malunion and 1 case with humeral head necrosis in locking plate group,and 1 case with ankylosis,1 case with wound infection,1 case with refracture and 1 case with humeral head necrosis in artificial joint replacement group after treatment.There were no significant differences in complications between groups (x2 =0.17,P=0.683).Conclusions The locking plate and artificial joint replacement are effective in the treatment of comminuted proximal humeral fractures.Compared with artificial joint replacement,the locking plate can improve the functional recovery,activity and Neer score evaluation with a low technical requirement,which is an ideal method for comminuted proximal humeral fractures.