Surgical Approaches for Acetabulum Fracture Treatment: Analytic Review

Abstract

Background. The use of classical and modified surgical approaches to acetabulum is accompanied by serious intra- and postoperative complications associated with tissues, vessels, nerves, and lymphatic structures injury. The choice of approach to acetabulum affects the surgical time and the blood loss volume.
 The aim of the review was to compare the surgical time and blood loss volume using different surgical approaches to the acetabulum based on the relevant literature analysis.
 Methods. The search was carried out in PubMed/MEDLINE and Scopus databases from 1964 to 2022. When conducting a search for the phrases acetabular fractures, surgical approach to the acetabulum, 4368 articles were found. As a result of the selection, 12 publications containing the most complete information on the studied indicators were included in the quantitative analysis.
 Results. The data of surgical treatment of 540 patients with acetabulum fractures were analyzed. The average age of the patients was 45.211.6 years. Among the causes of pelvic and acetabulum fractures, road accident (70.4%) and falls from height (21.3%) largely prevailed. The blood loss depended on the use of specific approaches or their combination, and the surgical time. The shortest surgical time (101.027.0 min.) was required using pararectal approach, the longest (26456.4 min.) with the use of ilio-inguinal approach. The largest volume of blood loss was observed with Pfannenstiel approach 1057.1377.9 ml. No statistically significant differences were found when comparing the Kocher-Langenbeck (793328 ml), ilio-inguinal (82864 ml) and pararectal (798322 ml) approach. Performing the Kocher-Langenbeck approach in the patients lateral position reduces the surgical time by 16.8% and reduces blood loss by 12.4% compared to the patients prone position.
 Conclusion. Comparative clinical studies are required to determine the safest surgical approaches to the acetabulum, depending on the type of fracture, the mechanism of injury and the age of the patient.