A cross sectional study of functional outcome of proximal humerus fractures treated with closed reduction and percutaneous pinning

Abstract

The most common orthopaedic injuries related to falls and road traffic accidents are fractures. Mostly these are hip fractures, distal radial fractures and the fractures of humerus. Proximal humerus fractures represent approximately 4% of all the fractures. Increased number falls and increased prevalence of osteoporosis leads to more number of cases of proximal humerus fractures. In elderly patients the most common mechanism of injury in proximal humeral fractures is a fall from standing height onto an outstretched upper extremity. In patients less than 50 years of age, high energy trauma like motor vehicle accidents and falls from significant heights or athletic injuries are the most common causes for these fractures.In our study, we evaluated 50 cases of proximal humerus fractures treated at department of orthopaedics of a medical college and tertiary care institute. Patients were treated with closed reduction and percutaneous pinning. Neer's functional assessment was used for post-operative functional assessment of these cases. Majority of the patients were from the age group of 41-60 years (50%), 56% were males while 44% were females. Most of the patients had right sided humeral fractures (62%). Commonest mode of injury in these patients was fall (68%), while rest of the patients (32%) had road traffic accidents. Majority of the patients (66%) required 10-12 weeks for union of fractures, the mean time of union being 10.63 weeks. 2 -Part Neer's type patients contributed 56% of the study population. 75% of the patients did not have any complication. Only one patient experienced failure of fracture healing, while most of the patients (56%) had excellent functional outcome.