ABSTRACT

The management of shaft of the tibia is always an important consequence as it is one of the most common sites of an open fracture. A sequential protocol of managing open fractures is initial debridement, external fixation and closure of the wound followed by intra-medullary interlocking nail. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the functional outcome of external fixator as primary and definitive treatment for open tibial shaft fractures. This is an observational analytical study conducted from 1st July 2014 to 1st January 2015 at a tertiary care hospital. A total of 104 patients with open tibial shaft fractures were included in the study. After surgical debridement external fixator was applied to all the patients under general anesthesia. Fracture healing was assessed by standard radio graphics and after the confirmation of union, external fixator was removed and functional outcome was recorded. The average age of the patients was 37.22 13 years, mean hospital stay was 12.87 4.27 days, the time for union was 82.9 9.14 days and the rate of infection was 18.3%. it is concluded that external fixator can be effectively used as definitive mean of fixation in open fractures of tibia with extensive soft tissue damage. Keywords; Open tibial shaft fracture, External fixator, Fracture union

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2019/8.3.4634