Effect of the fracture line direction in the sagittal profile on the Gartland type Ⅲ supracondylar humerus fractures in children / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To compare the effects of the fracture line direction in the sagittal profile on the Gartland type Ⅲ supracondylar humerus fractures in children.Methods:A total of 153 cases of Gartland type Ⅲ supracondylar humerus fractures treated in the Department of Pediatric Orthopedics, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University (Qingdao) from January 2017 to April 2019 were retrospectively analyzed.They were categorized into the traditional oblique type (the fracture line went downward in the front and upward in the back), transverse type (the fracture line went horizontally) and reverse oblique type (the fracture line went upward in the front and downward in the back). Gender, age, injury side, cause of injury, ecchymosis before elbow, preoperative neurological symptoms, operation time, incision ratio, and Flynn scores of the elbow joint at the last follow-up were compared among the 3 groups.Results:Patients were followed up for (8.65±2.47) months (6-15 months). There were 60, 64 and 29 patients in the traditional oblique type, transverse type and reserve oblique type groups, respectively.There were no differences in the gender, injury side, and injury causes among the 3 groups (all P>0.05). The age of the traditional oblique type, transverse type and reverse oblique type group were (4.76±2.51) years, (4.71±2.09) years and (6.32±1.98) years, respectively, which was significant different among the 3 groups ( F=5.826, P<0.05). There were 10, 7 and 11 cases of preoperative elbow ecchymosis occurred in children of the traditional oblique type, transverse type and reverse oblique type groups, respectively, which was significant different ( χ2=9.902, P<0.05). No significant differences were found in preoperative neurological symptoms of the 3 groups ( P>0.05). The operative time for the traditional oblique type, transverse type and reverse oblique type group were (43.28±24.25) min, (40.95±27.41) min and (58.66±34.08) min, which was significant different ( F=4.337, P<0.05). The traditional oblique type and transverse type groups had 1 failure case of closed reduction, respectively, and the incision was performed during the operation.There were 4 cases in the reverse oblique type group who underwent the open reduction.The reduction rate was significantly different among 3 groups ( χ2=6.883, P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the excellent to good rate of traditional oblique type (96.67%, 58/60 cases), transverse type(95.31%, 61/64 cases)and reserve oblique type (93.10%, 27/29 cases) among 3 groups ( P>0.05). Conclusions:The reverse oblique Gartland type Ⅲ supracondylar humerus fractures are relatively rare in clinical practice, which involves more severe soft tissue damages and more obvious antecubital ecchymosis.The conventional reduction methods seem to be ineffectual for the reverse oblique supracondylar humerus fractures.