Journal of clinical orthopaedics and trauma
-
J Clin Orthop Trauma · Jun 2021
Suprapatellar versus infrapatellar nailing for tibial shaft fractures: A comparison of surgical and clinical outcomes between two approaches.
Tibial shaft fractures are a relatively common injury and contemporary treatment includes on-axis fixation with a locked intramedullary nail in the majority of cases. The conventional technique is via an infrapatellar approach but currently there is a trend towards the use of a suprapatellar approach. We compared key variables including operative time, radiation exposure and early patient reported outcomes when adopting a suprapatellar approach to tibial nailing in our unit versus our previous experience of infrapatellar tibial nailing. ⋯ Our study shows that adoption of the SPN approach requires minimal learning curve, and has the potential benefits of reduced operative time, radiation exposure and superior patient reported outcomes when compared to the conventional infrapatellar approach.