RESUMO
PURPOSE: The purpose of our study was to compare postoperative outcomes between patients receiving closed reduction percutaneous pinning (CRPP) to open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) following metacarpal and phalanx fractures. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed at a single academic center for all patients suffering a metacarpal or phalanx fracture and receiving either CRPP or ORIF between 2012 and 2018. Patients were divided into fracture mechanism, high-energy mechanism of injury, low-energy mechanism of injury, or unknown, and treatment of fracture with either ORIF or CRPP. High-energy mechanism of injury included gunshot wounds, motor vehicle crash, and blast injuries, whereas low-energy mechanism of injury included all other causes. Patient demographics, postoperative complications, 30-day readmission, and return to the operating room were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 408 patients, with 524 fractures, were included in the study. There were 127 fractures that resulted from high-energy mechanisms and 394 fractures that resulted from low-energy mechanisms. Open reduction internal fixation was used to treat 299 fractures, whereas CRPP was used for 225 fractures. Among fracture fixation, there was a total of 8.4% complication rate with ORIF, accounting for 10.4% of complications, and CRPP accounting for 5.8%. Among the fracture mechanism, the high-energy mechanism of injury had a 21.3% complication rate, whereas the low-energy mechanism of energy was 4.3%. When comparing the above variables, only high-energy mechanism of injury was a statistically significant predictor of complications (odds ratio, 3.2; confidence interval, 1.5-7.0; P = 0.002). The average operating room time for the ORIF group was 124.82 minutes compared with 97.6 minutes for the CRPP group. CONCLUSION: Patients with hand fractures corrected by ORIF appeared to have a higher postoperative complication rate. When the 2 procedures, ORIF and CRPP, were controlled for mechanism of injury, there was not a statistically significant difference in postoperative complication rate (P = 0.14). However, a fracture sustained by a high-energy mechanism was a statistically significant predictor of postoperative complications (P = 0.002).
