Abstract
Background To analyze the clinical characteristic and economic of intramedullary nailing versus locking compression plate for the treatment of open distal tibial fractures.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted by enrolling patients with open distal tibial fractures who were admitted in Lower Limb Surgery Ward of Traumatic Orthopedic Department，Xi’an Honghui Hospital from January 2016 to January 2019. The collected clinical materials and data included gender, age, injury mechanism, smoke and alcohol, comorbidity disease, Gustilo classification, days before operation, final treatment option, surgical duration, intraoperative bleeding loss, length of stay, complications, Johner-Wruhs criteria, total cost within 1 year after surgery (including hospitalization expenses and postoperative rehabilitation or follow-up expenses). All the patients were divided into two groups based on the final treatment options: Group IMN(intramedullary nailing) and Group LCP(locking compression plate). Cost data for each case within 1 year after surgery were analyzed for the cost-effectiveness ratio (CER)and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of IMN versus LCP.Results 49 consecutive cases were enrolled including 28 cases of Group IMN and 21 cases of Group LCP with the excellent and good rate of 82.1% (23 cases) and 85.7% (18 cases) respectively based on Johner-Wruhs criteria. The surgical duration (p=0.017) and intraoperative bleeding loss(p=0.046) were significantly lower in Group IMN than in Group LCP. Total cost within 1 year after surgery(p=0.048) was also less in Group IMN（126435.90±39093.98 CNY）than in Group LCP（147834.60±56821.12 CNY）. No statistically significant difference was discovered on the excellent and good rate of Johner-Wruhs criteria between the two groups(p＞0.05). The average cost for every 1% of excellent and good rate was 1540.02 CNY in Group IMN and 1725.02 CNY in Group LCP. Each 1% increasing of excellent and good rate cost 5944.08 CNY more in Group LCP compared with Group IMN.Conclusions Both the IMN and LCP could provide a satisfactory outcome for open distal tibial fractures. However the IMN was a more cost-effective management than LCP when the economic analysis was included.
Clinical Characteristics and Economic Analysis of Intramedullary Nailing Versus Plate and Screws for Open Distal Tibial Fractures: a Retrospective Study
