Four-dimensional analysis of wall thickness for judgment of femoral bone healing / 中华创伤骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the feasibility and effectiveness of four-dimensional analysis of wall thickness for judgment of femoral bone healing.Methods:The clinical data were retrospectively analyzed of the 29 patients who had been diagnosed with femoral bone malunion or bone nonunion at Department of Orthopaedics, Air Force Hospital of Eastern Military Theater of PLA from June 2014 to June 2019. They were 24 males and 5 females with an average age of 41.8 years (from 5 to 54 years). There were 25 cases of delayed union and 4 cases of nonunion (including 2 ones of hypertrophic nonunion and 2 ones of at-rophic nonunion). Mimics software 2.0 and the four-dimensional analysis of wall thickness were used to simulate and analyze the fracture bone healing of the patients at different time points. In comparison with the CT data of the contralateral healthy limb, the fracture bone healing was judged to assist the diagnosis of femoral union, delayed union and nonunion on the basis of the changing trends with time. The original clinical diagnoses were thus revised and the eventual clinical healing outcomes were observed.Results:All the patients were followed up for 1 to 4 years (mean, 14.9 months). Of them, bone union was clinically diagnosed in 13 (44.8%), delayed bone union in 12 (41.4%) and bone nonunion in 4 (13.8%). According to the judgment by four-dimensional analysis of wall thickness, the clinical diagnoses were modified as follows 9 cases (31.0%) had bone union, 18 cases (62.1%) delayed bone union, and 2 cases (6.9%) bone nonunion. There were statistically significant differences between the 2 methods ( χ2=15.399, P=0.031). Conclusions:The four-dimensional analysis of wall thickness can be used to analyze quantitatively the femoral bone healing, providing a relatively objective basis for clinical diagnosis of bone nonunion and delayed bone union.