To compare the effect of modified external fixation and calcaneal traction in a staged management of Ruedi-Allgower type II/III tibial pilon fractures.

The data of 62 patients with Ruedi-Allgower type II/III tibial pilon fractures who were treated in Liuzhou People’s hospital from January 2017 to December 2018 were extracted in this retrospective analysis. There were 32 patients in the temporary external fixation (TEF) group and 30 patients in calcaneal traction (CT) group. Outcomes, including the duration of the surgical procedure, pin track infection, degree of limb swelling, time to second-stage operation, postoperative comfort score, and visual analog scale (VAS) score, were compared.

The effective rate of swelling reduction after treatment was 85% in the TEF group and 60% in the CT group; the average time to the second-stage operation was 8.34±1.29 days in the TEF group and 10.60±2.27 days in the CT group; the postoperative comfort scores were 70.1±3.2 and 61.3±3.5 in the TEF group and CT group, respectively; the postoperative VAS scores at 24 h, 48 h, and 7 days were 7.90±1.06, 4.88±0.83, 2.72±1.14 in TEF group, and 8.50±0.86, 6.27±1.36, 3.57±1.19 in CT group, respectively. There were 1 case of pin tract infection identified in the TEF group and 4 in the CT group. All differences were statistically significant (P<0.05).

The modified external fixation is more effective than calcaneal traction in treatment of Ruedi-Allgower type II/III tibial pilon fractures in the first-stage of combined management.

Different external skeletal fixators have been widely used in preoperative traction of high-energy tibial fractures prior to a definitive surgical treatment. However, the early complications associated with this staged treatment for traction and soft tissue injury recovery have rarely been discussed.

To analyze the early complications associated with preoperative external traction fixation in the staged treatment of tibial fractures.

A total of 402 patients with high-energy tibial fractures treated using preoperative external traction fixation at a Level 1 trauma center from 2014 to 2018 were enrolled in this retrospective study. Data regarding the demographic information, Tscherne soft tissue injury, fracture site, entry point placement, and duration of traction were recorded. Procedure-related complications such as movement and sensation disorder, vessel injury, discharge, infection, loosening, and iatrogenic fractures were analyzed.

The mean patient age was 42.5 (18-71) years, and the mean duration of traction was 7.5 (0-26) d. In total, 19 (4.7%) patients presented with procedure-related complications, including technique-associated complications in 6 patients and nursing-associated complications in 13. Differences in the incidence of complications with respect to sex, affected side, soft tissue injury classification, and fracture sites were not observed. However, the number of complications due to hammer insertion was significantly reduced than those due to drill insertions (2.9% vs 7.4%).

We found a low incidence of early complications related to the fixation. Furthermore, the complications were not significantly associated with the severity of the soft tissue injury and fracture site. Although relatively rough and more likely to cause pain, the number of complications associated with hammer insertion was significantly smaller than that of complications associated with drill insertion.

• Tibial fracture
• External fixation
• Bone traction
• Complications
• Vessels injury
• Nerve injury