Surgical methods of treatment for tibial diaphyseal fractures

Abstract

Background. Bone fractures are a public health concern. In recent years, there has been an upward trend in body weight of people of all age groups. Obesity has long been thought to help protect against fractures, but recent studies have shown that for every 5 cm increase in waist circumference, the risk of any fracture is 3 % higher. The purpose: according to the meta-analysis of modern medical literature, to determine the main directions of surgical treatment for long bone fractures, their advantages, and disadvantages, including in overweight patients, the features of diaphyseal fracture fixation in overweight patients. Materials and methods. A meta-analysis of special literature from scientific databases was conducted: Cochrane Library, Scopus, National Library of Medicine — National Institutes of Health, ReLAB-HS Rehabilitation Resources Repository. One hundred and thirty articles were analyzed, from them 31 were selected, which, in our opinion, reflect the purpose of the study. Results. All methods of surgical fixation of fractures have their advantages and disadvantages. The frequency of nonunions caused by intramedullary fixation of the femoral shaft can reach 10 %, and varus/valgus and rotational deformities and shortening can also be observed. But the use of locking screws prevents the occurrence of most complications. When fixing the fractures with plates, the main complications are related to superficial and deep infections, which were more often observed in overweight patients. The analysis demonstrated that in overweight and obese patients, the main complicating factor is not the method for fixing the fracture zone, but factors related to the health of the patient himself. So, despite the fact that the results of treatment of fractures in patients with normal weight and obesity did not have a statistically significant difference, an increase in cardiovascular complications, exacerbation of chronic respiratory diseases was observed. Moreover, it is the presence of concomitant diseases that often makes surgical intervention impossible. Conclusions. There is a large amount of research on surgical methods of fixing tibial diaphyseal fractures, but data on the choice of fixation method in overweight and obese patients as a separate approach were not found. There are data on complicating factors of excess weight in the treatment of fractures and surgical interventions. Systematic studies related specifically to the algorithm for choosing the method of fracture fixation and complications have also not been found.