Acute management of clavicle fractures. A long term functional outcome study.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term results after acute treatment of clavicle fractures. We reviewed 139 patients with an average age of 39.3 years (range: 18 to 74) who sustained a clavicle fracture either isolated or as part of a polytrauma. Besides demographic data, both clinical result and residual symptoms were also recorded. The average follow-up was 7.2 years (range: 4 to 13). The fracture showed a higher prevalence in young men and older women. The most frequent mechanism of injury was a fall (39.6%) and coexisting injuries were found in 12.9% of patients. Conservatively treated fractures united in 96.9% of cases and the time to union was no different with a sling or figure-of-eight bandage. Fracture location did not influence the functional outcome. One third of patients were still complaining of mild pain and discomfort during overhead activities and polytrauma patients had a lower Constant score.
Chalidis
Byron
B
1st Orthopaedic Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. byronchalidis@gmail.com
Sachinis
Nick
N
Samoladas
Efthimios
E
Dimitriou
Christos
C
Christodoulou
Anastasios
A
Pournaras
John
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002968:Clavicle / Q000293:injuries*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged