BACKGROUND Intercondylar humerus fractures and low transcondylar type fractures of distal humeral often require surgical exposure and anatomical reduction of the articular surface as well as stabilization of the medial and lateral columns of the distal humerus. Traditionally, these injuries have been treated surgically with various extensor mechanism-disrupting surgical approaches. These approaches have often led to delayed union or non-union of the olecranon, triceps weakness, and osteotomy-related prominent implants. To avoid these problems, various extensor mechanism-sparing approaches that provide bicolumnar exposure of the distal part of the humerus have been described, including triceps-splitting and reflecting techniques. The paratricipital approach was developed to avoid the problems of olecranon osteotomy approach for non comminuted distal humerus fractures. The purpose of this study was to compare the paratricipital approach with olecranon osteotomy and evaluate their effects on the functional outcomes of intercondylar fractures of the distal humerus managed with open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) by reviewing 38 cases of intercondylar distal humerus fractures surgically managed with either of the approaches during 2015 - 2017. METHODS The retrospective study was conducted at our institution, R.G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata from May 2015 to May 2017. OA type C1 and C2 fractures were included in the study. Type C3 fractures were excluded from the study. Distal humeral open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) was performed with either orthogonal or parallel plate constructs in 38 patients, where paratricipital approach was used in 21 patients and olecranon osteotomy was done for 17 patients. RESULTS Patients in the paratricipital approach group seems to have better range of motion in terms of flexion and extension. Moreover, mayo elbow performance score (MEPS) of the paratricipital group is better than that of olecranon osteotomy group, even more so in younger age groups. CONCLUSIONS We found that ORIF via the paratricipital approach would confer better functional outcomes for simple intra-articular distal humerus fractures in patients of all age groups. KEYWORDS Distal Humerus Fracture, Paratricipital, Olecranon Osteotomy
Evaluation of Functional Outcomes of Intra-articular Fractures of Distal Humerus by Open Reduction and Internal Fixation