Healing time and side effects of using plating in treatment of tibial fractures

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigation of healing time and side effects of using plating in treatment of tibial fractures. Materials and Methods: This study was a descriptive study and was performed on all patients referred to the emergency department of Tabriz Shohada Hospital in 2018-20 with definitive diagnosis of tibial fracture and with the inclusion and exclusion criteria, was fixed with plating and were visited regularly up to 7 months after treatment and their files were available (42 patients). Sampling was done census. The data collection methods by reviewing the records of patients. The questionnaire included demographic characteristics, smoking, type and location of fracture, occurrence of plating fracture, infection at the site of the plating, duration of the first postoperative healing, duration of weight bearing and occurrence of malunion. Results: In this study, the mean (standard deviation) age of the subjects was 28.64 (±8.7) years. Of these, in 3 case (7.1%) there was a history of hypertension and in 3 case (7.1%) there was a history of migraine and mitral valve prolapse. Also, 27 cases (64.3%) of the subjects smoked. The type of fracture in this study was simple in 15 cases (35.7%) and segmental in 27 cases (64.3%). Also, the fracture site in the subjects of this study was lower third in 21 cases (50.0%), middle third in 15 cases (35.7%) and upper third in 6 cases (14.3%). In this study, 1 case (2.7%) had malunion and 1 case (2.7%) had a plating fracture. No plating site infection was observed in any of the subjects. The mean (standard deviation) duration of the first postoperative healing in the subjects was 1.15 (±0.3) months. Also, the mean (standard deviation) duration of the weight bearing in these individuals was 3.08 (±0.3) months.