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Higher incidence of reoperation found with use of plate for distal radius fracture treatment
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Patients with a distal radius fracture treated with a plate had a higher incidence of reoperation compared with patients treated with pin or external fixation, according to study results.
Researchers followed 36,618 patients from the Swedish National Patient Registry who underwent surgery due to a distal radius fracture from January 2001 to December 2009 until the occurrence of either reoperations, a new distal radius fracture, death or December 2010. All patients included in the study had a minimum 1 year of follow-up data available for review, and mean follow-up time was 4.2 years. Types and distributions of complications were presented for pinning, external fixations (EF) and plating, respectively.
Results showed an incidence of reoperation after fracture surgery of 100 using EF, 140 using pins and 222 using plating per 10,000 person years. The differences remained significant when plating was compared with EF and pinning even after adjusting for age and gender.
Mean time to reoperation was different for each fixation method, with earlier reoperation seen in patients treated with EF or pins compared with those treated with plating. A stratified analysis adjusted for age showed significant differences between plating and EF and between plating and pinning; however, the differences were no longer significant between EF and pinning, according to the researchers.
The researchers also found that, compared with plated patients, pinning and EF displayed an earlier onset of complications. – by Casey Tingle
Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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