Outcomes of expandable nailing system for humeral shaft fractures / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

From January 2006 to December 2007,44 cases of humeral shaft fractures were admitted to Department of Orthopaedics,Sixth People's Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University,including 29 males and 15 females,with an average age of 40.7 years old(ranging 19-89 years).Of them,13 cases of fracture involved upper segment,24 involved middle segment and 7 lower segment.All fractures were close fractures.According to AO/ASIF classification,there were 5 cases of type A1,11 of A2,6 of A3,6 of B1,12 of B2,and 4 of B3.All patients were treated by expendable intramedullary nailing system.Time of operation,hospitalization and healing,blood loss,intra-or postoperative complications and range of shoulder and elbow motion were recorded and analyzed statistically.X-ray was shot to observe the union of fractures.The expendable intramedullary nailing was successfully performed in all patients for 86 minutes(ranging 30-150 minutes).The blood loss ranged from 30 to 200 mL with a mean of 70 mL.Except primary injury-caused radial paralysis,no iatrogenic radial paralysis occurred.All 44 patients were follow-up with an average of 18 months.Of them,41 patients had fracture union,and 3 nonunion.The average healing time was 15.8 weeks.There were 15 patients complained of pain in the shoulder joint,which did not affect daily life.According to UCLA shoulder scoring system,an excellent result was found in 18 patients,good in 23 patients,and fair in 3 patients with an excellent/good rate of 93.2%.All the patients had the excellent results according to Mayo elbow performance score system.No infection,iatrogenic fracture,limb shortening,nail breakage,fat embolism syndrome or peripheral nerve injury was found.The expandable nail offers the advantages of little blood loss,reduced operation time and exposure to radiation.However,nail antegrade insertion may lead to shoulder pain,and it should be paid more attention for cases of rotational instability in inferior segment of the humerus.