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The Ewha Medical Journal
Ewha Womans University School of Medicine

Ewha Med J 1994; 17(1):51-57

pISSN: 1598-7450

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12771/emj.1994.17.1.51

Case Report

Intramedullary Nailing of the Tibial Shaft Fracture: Comparison between Rigid and Flexible Nails

Yeo-Hon Yun, Kwon-Jae Roh

Copyright ⓒ 1994. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Mar 30, 1994

Abstract

To dilrectly coimpare the rigid and flexible jlltrarnedullary nails for the treatment of tibialfractiires, we restrospectively reviewed the clinical result of 108 tibial fractures treated at theEwha Womans University Hospital between January 1987 to June 1993. Twenty-one cases werebelonged to the flexible nail(FN) group, while 87 fractures were included to the rigid(non-locking or interlocking) nail(RN) group.

Average period between the injury and fracture union was overall 17.5 weeks(range, 11-67)and it was much shorter in the RN group(15.2 weeks) than the FN group(29.0). Complicationsduring and after treatment in terms of malunion as well as delayed or non-union, were alsomore common in the FN group. However. deep wound infecctions were only found after rigidnailing.

In conclusion, in view of the fracture union time and comptication rate, rigid nailing showedbetter results than the flexible one. But the flexible nails had several inherent advantages especially ill the technical aspects of their use.

Keywords: Tivial fracture; Flexible nail; Rigid nail