Fragment volume and surgical methods in radial head fracture / 中华创伤骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the relationship between volume of fracture fragment and surgical methods in patients with radial head fracture.Methods A retrospective study was conducted of the 60 patients with radial head fracture of Mason type Ⅲ who had been admitted to the Department of Hand Surgery,Wuhan Pu'ai Hospital from January 2013 to December 2016.They were 28 males and 32 females,aged from 26 to 71 years (average,54.5 years).Of them,41 underwent open reduction and internal fixation (incision group) and 19 radial head replacement (replacement group).The volumes of radial head and fracture fragment were measured by CT scan and three-dimensional reconstruction of the elbow joint before operation.A volume-weighted ratio R corresponding to a specific radial head fragment was calculated.Correlation between the volume-weighted ratio R of the radial head fragment and the Broberg-Morrey elbow function score was calculated.At the last follow-up,the Broberg-Morrey elbow function score was used to assess the efficacy and complications were recorded in the 2 groups.Results All the 60 patients were followed up for 20 to 36 months (mean,28.6 months).At the last follow-up,the Broberg-Morrey elbow function score was 86.5 ±1.3 points (from 72 to 91 points) for the incision group and 93.6 ± 1.4 points (from 78 to 95 points) for the replacement group;the complication rate was 17.1％ (7/41) for the former and 15.8％ (3/19) for the latter.There was a linear relationship between the volume-weighted ratio R of the radial head fragment and the Broberg-Morrey elbow function score in the incision group.The linear regression equation between the two was:y=65.63+0.67x (R2=0.85,P=0.0006).There was no linear relationship between the volume-weighted ratio R of the radial head fragment and the Broberg-Morrey elbow function score in the replacement group (P =0.053).When the Broberg-Morrey elbow joint function score (93.6 points) for the replacement group was substituted into the linear regression equation y =65.63 + 0.67x (y =93.6),x =41.7.Conclusions In the patients with radial head fracture of Mason type Ⅲ,open reduction and internal fixation may lead to a better prognosis for those with a volume ratio ≥41.7 between the radial head and fracture fragment while radial head replacement may lead to a better prognosis for those with a volume ratio ＜41.7 between the radial head and fracture fragment and for those elderly ones with osteoporosis.