Can Clinical and Surgical Parameters Be Combined to Predict How Long It Will Take a Tibia Fracture to Heal? A Prospective Multicentre Observational Study: The FRACTING Study.

BACKGROUND: Healing of tibia fractures occurs over a wide time range of months, with a number of risk factors contributing to prolonged healing. In this prospective, multicentre, observational study, we investigated the capability of FRACTING (tibia FRACTure prediction healING days) score, calculated soon after tibia fracture treatment, to predict healing time. METHODS: The study included 363 patients. Information on patient health, fracture morphology, and surgical treatment adopted were combined to calculate the FRACTING score. Fractures were considered healed when the patient was able to fully weight-bear without pain. RESULTS: 319 fractures (88%) healed within 12 months from treatment. Forty-four fractures healed after 12 months or underwent a second surgery. FRACTING score positively correlated with days to healing: r = 0.63 (p < 0.0001). Average score value was 7.3 ± 2.5; ROC analysis showed strong reliability of the score in separating patients healing before versus after 6 months: AUC = 0.823. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the FRACTING score can be employed both to predict months needed for fracture healing and to identify immediately after treatment patients at risk of prolonged healing. In patients with high score values, new pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments to enhance osteogenesis could be tested selectively, which may finally result in reduced disability time and health cost savings.

The role of external fixation in the treatment of humeral shaft fractures: a retrospective case study review on 85 humeral fractures.

There is no consensus among surgeons on the treatment for humeral fractures: the best it is still a matter of some debate. The aim of our work was to demonstrate that external fixation may be considered a valid method not only in emergencies but also for the definitive treatment of such fractures. We perform a retrospective case study review on 85 humeral fractures, 62 shaft fractures, and 23 extrarticular distal third fractures treated with external fixation. Clinical (Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) score and SF-36) and radiographic follow-up lasted on average 30 months (minimum 12 to maximum 36). Complete healing of fractures was achieved in 97.6% of cases (83 patients), with an average consolidation time of about 12 weeks (83.2 days). One case of delayed union and one case of refracture were encountered. Eighty-one patients demonstrated SF-36 scores at or above the national average and an average DASH score of 8.9. External fixation of humeral shaft fractures is considered a valid treatment method as it provides good results in terms of stability of reduction, tolerability, healing times, and functional recovery.

A case of bilateral stress fractures in an old woman: three years of pain.

In elderly patients frequent episodes of joint pain of lower limbs exacerbated by stress and resistant to treatment occur frequently. This paper reports a case of a long lasting bilateral atraumatic knee pain with a final diagnosis of bilateral stress fractures of proximal tibia in osteoporotic postmenopausal woman. The distinctive trait of this case is that the fracture has set in bilaterally and associated with an isthmic L4-L5 spondylolisthesis in a patient afflicted by a decline in mood. This particular clinical picture has delayed the diagnosis and the suitable treatment for 3 years. Therapy for this type of patients must aim in the acute phase at pain relief and only after must be settled in a long term antiosteoporotic therapy. We choose clodronate acyd for pain relief and after strontium ranelate for osteoporosis prevention.

The second hip fracture in osteoporotic patients: not only an orthopaedic matter.

The second hip fracture indicates the fracture of the osteoporotic femoral neck which occurs in patients already operated on the opposite side. It is a growing problem, especially in Italy where the ageing rate of the population is one of the highest in the world. Only in recent years this issue has been discussed in the international literature about timing and the treatment methods as a consequence linked to the social costs, mortality, disability of this pathology. The aim of our study is the evaluation of the incidence of hip fractures in a sample of patients that already substained a surgical procedure for a proximal femour fracture. The evaluation was based on the time elapsed between the two fractures, the quality of life after the second fractural episode through a telephone questionnaire (EQ-5D), the incidence of mortality, the adhesion to the antifractural therapy and the comparison of the obtained data to the international standards.

Supracondylar humerus fractures in children treated with closed reduction and percutaneous pinning.

Supracondylar fractures of the humerus in children are important for frequency and type of associated serious complications. The management of this kind of fractures is still controversial (Skaggs et al. in J Bone Joint Surg Am 86:702-707, 2004; Kalllio et al. in J Pediatr Orthop 12:11-15, 1992). We are going to present our experience in the treatment of supracondylar humeral fracture in children. In the Orthopedic Department of Pisa, we treated 150 cases from 1989 to 2006. We are used to perform, emergency or within 12 h, reduction and two lateral-entry percutaneous pins fixation. The mean age was 7.5 years. We checked 125 cases, because we excluded all the cases with follow up less then 5 years. The mean follow up was 8.2 years. We used Gartland classification modified by Wilkins. We evaluated 125 cases by using the Flynn classification: 100 % of patients did not have impairment of the elbow joint mobility. We had seven valgus deviation, one of which was more then 10°. We also had 17 varus deviations, 11 of which were not over 8° and only 2 of them were 15°. The average value of the joint Baumann angle was calculated as great as 16°. The obtained results were classified as very good 80 %, good 11 %, sufficiently good 6 %, and bad 3 %. In our experience, all the fractures type II and III by Gartland have to be treated within 12 h, with closed reduction and stabilization with lateral-entry K-wire technique. The conservative treatment by cast is indicated only in type I fracture. The trans olecranic treatment is not realizable, for the stiffness which can occur, for the risk of iatrogenic ulnar nerve lesion, and for long-time hospitalization. The open reduction remains the first choice treatment for exposed or nonreducible fractures, and in cases of vascular injury.