Background:
Spica casting and elastic stable intramedullary nailing (ESIN) are treatment options for femur fractures in preschool-age children. Clinical practice guidelines are only of moderate or limited strength, which may lead to variation in practice. The purpose of this study was to compare the revision surgery rate in young children undergoing these procedures.
Methods:
The Pediatric Health Information System, a database of 49 children hospitals, was queried for patients aged 3 to 6 years undergoing spica casting or ESIN for a diaphyseal femur fracture. ESIN removal was not considered an unplanned revision surgery because the indication for removal could not be determined in the database. Univariate analysis was followed by multivariate regression.
Results:
Analysis included 4,059 subjects with a mean age of 3.9 ± 1.1 years. Unplanned revision surgery was done in 227/2,878 children (8%) with a spica cast and 35/1,181 (3%) of those with ESIN (
P
< 0.01). Approximately 2% of children in each cohort underwent ESIN or open reduction and internal fixation as a revision procedure (
P
= 0.35). In multivariate analysis, spica casting resulted in 4.4 times higher odds of unplanned revision surgery than ESIN (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.9–6.7;
P
< 0.01). In the spica cast cohort, each year of increasing age resulted in 1.3 times higher odds of revision surgery (95% CI, 1.1–1.6;
P
< 0.01). Children who were aged 5 or 6 years at the time of spica casting had 1.9 times higher odds of requiring a subsequent procedure compared with 3- and 4-year-olds (95% CI, 1.3–2.7;
P
< 0.01).
Conclusions:
In this large, nationally representative cohort, spica casting resulted in higher odds of requiring an unplanned revision surgery than ESIN, when nail removal was not included as an unplanned procedure. Spica casting in 5- and 6-year-olds yielded higher odds of revision surgery. Regardless of whether spica casting or ESIN is chosen as the initial treatment, 2% of patients will subsequently undergo ESIN or open reduction and internal fixation as a revision procedure.
Introduction: Given the relative rarity of tibial tubercle fractures and the high proportion that undergo surgical treatment, there is little data on non-operative management of these injuries. Some patients that are initially treated non-surgically may ultimately require operative intervention. The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors for failed non-operative management of tibial tubercle fractures. Methods: This retrospective comparative study included patients younger than 18 years that underwent initial non-operative treatment of a tibial tubercle fracture at six tertiary children’s hospitals. Those that underwent primary surgical intervention were excluded. Demographic, radiographic, and clinical data were reviewed. Conversion to surgical fixation was considered a failure of non-operative treatment. Univariable analysis was followed by multivariate regression to adjust for confounders. Results: A total of 136 patients were included, of which 19.1% failed non-operative treatment and subsequently underwent surgery. The median age of patients that ultimately required surgery was 14.0 y [IQR (interquartile range) 2.5 y] compared to 12.0 y (IQR 2.0 y) for those that were successfully managed without surgery. Non-operative treatment failed in 7.8% of Ogden type I fractures, 66.7% of type II, 81.8% of type III, 35.7% of type IV, and 7.1% of type V (p<0.001). After adjusting for confounders, including weight and initial weight-bearing status, each year of increasing age raised the odds of failure by 1.9 (95% CI 1.2-3.0, p=0.006). Additionally, Ogden type II fractures had 23.4 times higher odds than type I (95% CI 2.1-260.8, p=0.01). Ogden type III fractures had 36.3 times higher odds of failing non-operative treatment than type I (95% CI 4.2-315.4, p=0.001). Conclusion: In this study of patients with a tibial tubercle fracture initially treated non-operatively, 19.1% ultimately underwent surgery. Increasing age and Ogden type II and III fracture classification were associated with failure of non-operative management. These results may help guide decision-making regarding surgical versus non-surgical treatment. Significance: There is little data on non-operative treatment of tibial tubercle fractures. This study identifies risk factors for failure of non-operative treatment and may aid clinical decision-making.
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