Painful locking screws with tibial nailing, an underestimated complication
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Abstract
Background
Tibial fractures represent approximately 3–4% of reported fractures. Locked, intramedullary nails are commonly used to restore length and alignment and provide rotational stability. Few studies have assessed the complication rate of locking screws.
Materials and methods
We conducted a retrospective observational study of all patients who underwent tibial nailing at our institution between the 01/01/15 and 30/06/17. All patients were followed up for at least 1 year post-operatively. For inclusion, patients had to be over 16 years of age and had undergone tibial nail fixation following a traumatic fracture. Post-operative radiographs were used to assess the configuration and features of locking screws.
Results
One hundred and twenty-six individuals underwent tibial nailing over the 30-month period, with 95 followed up at least 1 year. Twenty-seven per cent of individuals reported pain attributed to locking screws at follow-up. Upon radiographic assessment, no significant difference was seen between symptomatic and asymptomatic cohorts in terms of proud screw heads proximally (7% vs 5%, p > 0.99) or distally (14% vs 17%, p > 0.99), long screw tips proximally (52% vs 48%, p = 0.81) or distally (51% vs 50%, p > 0.99), or tibiofibular joint penetration proximally (31% vs 23%, p = 0.60). However, there was a higher incidence of distal tibiofibular joint penetration in symptomatic versus asymptomatic individuals (4% vs 25%, p = 0.025).
Conclusion
Twenty-seven per cent of patients with a tibial nail report painful locking screws. Patients with symptomatic distal locking screws had a higher incidence of radiographic distal tibiofibular joint penetration.
Keywords
Tibial fractures Surgery Fracture fixation Intramedullary Complications Intramedullary nailingNotes
Acknowledgements
CB Hing reports personal fees from Elsevier, Grants from Orthopaedic Research UK, Grants from Arthrex, Grants from Stryker, Grants from NIHR, outside the submitted work.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest
All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
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