Objective: To investigate the clinical results of locking-plate with an intramedullary fibular allograft for type C2 proximal humeral fracture fixation.
Methods: Between January 2011 and August 2012, 16 patients with proximal humeral fractures (AO type C2) were treated by locking-plate with an intramedullary fibular allograft. The clinical data were retrospectively analysed. There were 5 males and 11 females with an average age of 64 years (range, 55-70 years). The injury causes were falling injury in 12 cases, traffic accident injury in 3 cases, and sports injury in 1 case. The duration between injury and operation ranged from 2 to 6 days (mean, 4.5 days). The imaging data were used to judge the fracture healing, and to measure the neck-shaft angle and the height of humeral head; the disability of arm, shoulder, and hand (DASH) score, short-form 36 health survey scale (SF-36), and Neer score were used to evaluate the function of the shoulder after surgery.
Results: Primary healing of incision was obtained in all patients; no complication of vascular and nerve injury occurred. Sixteen cases were followed up 12-24 months (mean, 18 months). All fractures healed at 18-24 weeks (mean, 20 weeks). No complication occurred as follows: re-displacement, necrosis, rejection reaction, and loosening or extraction of screws. At last follow-up, the neck-shaft angle was 126.6-136.9 degrees (mean, 132.5 degrees), showing a little lost when compared with intraoperative angle (130.5-138.0 degrees, 134.0 degrees on average). At 12 months after surgery, the height loss of humeral head was 1.8-4.6 mm (mean, 2.0 mm); the passive anteflexion of the shoulder was 130-160 degrees (mean, 148 degrees); the active anteflexion was 120-145 degrees (mean, 136 degrees); the external rotation was 30-65 degrees (mean, 56 degrees); the internal rotation was 15-25 degrees (mean, 19 degrees). And the DASH score was 2-53 (mean, 12); the SF-36 score was 50-95 (mean, 89). According to Neer score for shoulder function, the results were excellent in 10 cases, good in 4 cases, fair in 1 case, and poor in 1 case, with an excellent and good rate of 87.5%.
Conclusion: Locking-plate with an intramedullary fibular allograft for type C2 proximal humeral fracture fixation has satisfactory clinical results because of stable fixation, high clinical outcome scores, and low internal fixation failure.