Publication:

Treatment of open tibial shaft fractures using intra medullary interlocking

Background It has been estimated that annual incidence of open fractures of long bones is 11.5 per 100 000 personswith 40% occurring in the lower limb and commonest site is the tibial diaphysis. This study was performed to evaluate clinical outcome of patients with open fracture of shaft of tibia.

Methods It was a hospital based observational prospective study was performed on a total of 30 study participants were enrolled and out of them 2 were lost to follow up. After discharge follow up was done every four weeks for clinical, radiological progress of bony union and soft tissue healing.

Results Majority of the study participants were in the age group of 31-40 years (37%). Males were the main study participant (63.3%). The process of healing took for about 13-16 weeks in 57.1% of the study participants were as in 18% of them it healed within 12 weeks. In 25% of the study participants the healing was completed in more than 16 weeks.

Conclusions It has been observed from the study that interlocked intramedullary nailing is a very effective and safe and technique for the management of open tibial fractures.