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Treatment of inferior pole patella fracture using Krackow suturing combined with the suture bridge technique

  • Orthopaedic Surgery
  • Published:
Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the feasibility and clinical effect of Krackow suturing combined with the suture bridge technique for the treatment of acute inferior pole patella fracture.

Methods

In this study, 18 patients with acute inferior pole patella fracture who received treatment using Krackow suturing combined with the suture bridge technique between January 2019 and March 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. There were 10 men and 8 women, with an average age of 50.1 years (range 24–69 years). X-ray examinations were performed to assess fracture healing and the Insall–Salvati index. The clinical effect was measured by the range of motion of the knee joint and the Böstman scale.

Results

Patients were followed up for 13–26 months, with an average follow-up period of 19.6 months. X-ray indicated that fracture union had occurred in all patients by 10.1 weeks after surgery on average (range 8–14 weeks). The mean Insall–Salvati index immediately after surgery and at the final follow-up was 0.98 ± 0.07 and 0.90 ± 0.22, respectively (P > 0.05). At the last follow-up, the mean flexion and extension ranges for the knee joint were 135.8° ± 8.8° and − 2.8° ± 3.9°, respectively, and the mean Böstman scale was 28.9 ± 1.1 points. Functional recovery was excellent in 17 patients and good in one patient, resulting in an overall good/excellent recovery rate of 100%.

Conclusions

Our results indicated that Krackow suturing combined with the suture bridge technique can achieve stable fracture fixation, provides good clinical outcomes in the treatment of acute inferior pole patella fracture, and is worthy of clinical application.

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Funding

This study was provided by Wuxi Top Medical Expert Team of “Taihu Talent Program” (TTPJY202101).

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Author notes

  1. Ming Zhou, Xueyuan Jia and Zhihai Cao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedics, Wuxi 9th People’s Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University, Wuxi, 214000, China

    Ming Zhou, Xueyuan Jia, Yunhong Ma, Yapeng Wang, Peng Wang, Yongqiang Kang, Junhao Luo, Yongwei Wu & Yongjun Rui

  2. Department of Emergency, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Changzhou, 213000, China

    Zhihai Cao

Authors
  1. Ming Zhou
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  2. Xueyuan Jia
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  4. Yunhong Ma
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  5. Yapeng Wang
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  6. Peng Wang
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  7. Yongqiang Kang
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  8. Junhao Luo
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  9. Yongwei Wu
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  10. Yongjun Rui
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yongwei Wu or Yongjun Rui.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This work was approved by the Ethics Committee of Wuxi 9th People’s Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University (NO. LW2021031). All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all patients.

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Zhou, M., Jia, X., Cao, Z. et al. Treatment of inferior pole patella fracture using Krackow suturing combined with the suture bridge technique. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg 143, 2973–2980 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-022-04525-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-022-04525-y

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