Cast bracing of tibial shaft fractures

ABSTRACT

Eighty patients with simple tibial shaft fractures were treated conservatively at Orthopaedic Department Ain Shams University. Forty patients were treated functionally by below knee brace, designed originally by Sarmiento [1970] and modified recently by us and the rest conventionally by above knee plaster cast. The average healing time of the functionally treated cases was eight weeks compared with 13.7 weeks of the control group. The rate of healing was found to be correlated with the time of weight bearing, the earliest was the time of weight bearing, the faster was the union. Comminuted and lower third tibial fractures took longer time to heal in the functional group but still less than the other group. The functionally treated cases showed full range of both knee and ankle joints with no wasting of the thigh or calf muscles. Complications of the functional bracing technique was found to be minimal