INTRA-MEDULLARY NAILING FOR HUMERAL SHAFT FRACTURES:A CASE SERIES

Abstract

Humeral shaft fractures have always been amenable to conservative treatment with good success. However, there are many fractures which need to be operated. Intra-medullary nailing, while being a very popular method of xation of long bone fractures of the lower extremity, has not gained similar traction in the humerus. We investigate a series of patients operated at our institution with intramedullary nailing, and outline the success of this procedure, and the problems encountered. This study was conducted at the Government Hospital for Bone & Joint Surgery, Srinagar, and included a total of 31 patients with humeral shaft fractures from August 2017 to September 2021. All these fractures were xed using reamed intramedullary nailing. Of the 31 patients, 22 were male, and 9 were female, with a mean age of 35.28 years. Mean time to union was 12.6 weeks. We encountered many complications in our series of patients. Three (9.6%) patients had a delayed union, one (3.22%) had proximal nail impingement, one (3.22%) had entry site iatrogenic comminution, two patients (6.4%) had supercial surgical site infection, and 11 (35.5%) patients had persistent shoulder pain. We concluded that Intramedullary nailing of the humerus is a safe, and effective procedure for humerus shaft fractures. However, problems related to the entry site are possible, and are a common cause for morbidity even after fracture union.