Operative Treatment of the Bony Mallet Finger / 대한정형외과학회잡지

ABSTRACT

Although there are various methods of operative treatment for hony mallet finger, the operative technique is not so easy and complications such as joint stiffness, sott tissue prohlems, infection, change of nail shape and arthrosis are common. The authors performed operations for 26 cases of hony mallet fingers, fixing the hony frapment by Kirschner wire, pull-out wire suture and miniscrew respectively, from Jan. l988 to Jun. l996. The results were as follows. l. According to Niechajev's classification. there were 3 cases of type B, 7 cases of type C, l4 cases of type D, and 2 cases of type E. And 11 cases were accompanied hy crushing injury. 2. Involved fingers were third finger in 11cases, fit'th finger in 7 cases, fourth finger in 5 cases, second finger in 2 cases. and thumb in I case. 3. The hony mallet finger was caused hy occupational injury in l6 cases, direct blow in 7 cases and sports injury in 3 cases. 4. The fractured fragment was fixed hy Kirschner wire in 9 cases, by pull-out suture in 9 cases and by miniscrew in 8 cases. 5. The results were evaluated hy Kanies scale. Sixteen cases had satisfactory results. Seven cases (87.5%) were satisfactory in miniscrew fixations. 5 cascs (55.6%) in pull-out wire suture methocls and 2 cases (22.2%) in Kirschner wire tixations. 6. The complications were joint incongruity in 4 cases, dorsal prominece in 6 cases, painful limitation of motion in 2 cases which were treated by arthrodesis, pin site infection in 2 cases and hreakage of wire suture in 1 case. 7. The miniscrew fixation offered relatively firm fixation, low complication rate, and good results. so it can be considered as one of the good methods of treatment for hony mallet finger.