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The function and muscle strength recovery of shoulder after humeral diaphysis fracture following plating and intramedullary nailing

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

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the shoulder function and shoulder girdle muscle strength of humeral diaphysis fractures postoperatively following intramedullary nailing (IMN) and open reduction internal fixation (ORIF).

Methods

Fifty cases of humeral diaphysis fractures were randomly allocated into two groups. Antegrade IMN and ORIF were, respectively, performed in group I and II. Union status, functional scoring, range of motion, muscle strength of shoulder girdle including external/internal rotation and abduction/adduction strength were recorded at 18 months after surgery. Statistical package for social sciences 13.0 was used for analysis.

Results

Group I had lower functional score than group II (P < 0.05). Both groups had approximately 50 % of muscle strength loss on injured side. In group II, the internal rotation strength loss was significantly greater compared to group I (P < 0.01). The total side to side (internal plus external) range of rotation (ROR) lack and external ROR lack of involved shoulder was significantly greater in group I (P = 0.005 and 0.049). The range of abduction lack was also significantly greater in group I.

Conclusions

Both surgically treated groups had significant loss of muscle strength of shoulder girdle when measured at 18 months postoperatively. There was greater loss of rotation strength in ORIF group than the IMN group. However, IMN had lower functional scores and a decreased range of motion postoperatively. The assumption that rotator cuff damage caused by nailing leads to weaker abduction strength than plating was not supported.

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Conflict of interest

We announce that no financial support was received from any companies or manufactures for this study. All authors confirm that they have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) this work, during the 3 years since the beginning of the work submitted.

Ethical review committee statement

In accordance with the ethical standards in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki, all relevant ethical safeguards have been met in relation to patient or subject protection with the authorization of institute’s ethical review committee.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Orthopaedics Department, Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, Shandong, China

    Shaojin Wang & Wenguang Liu

  2. Orthopaedics Department, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, Shandong, China

    Cheng Wang, Guofeng Dai & Qi Liu

Authors
  1. Cheng Wang
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  2. Guofeng Dai
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  3. Shaojin Wang
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  4. Qi Liu
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  5. Wenguang Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shaojin Wang.

Additional information

C. Wang and G. Dai contributed to the research equally.

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Wang, C., Dai, G., Wang, S. et al. The function and muscle strength recovery of shoulder after humeral diaphysis fracture following plating and intramedullary nailing. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg 133, 1089–1094 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-013-1768-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-013-1768-8

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