Treatment of Vertically Unstable Sacral Fractures with Pelvic External Fixation and Skeletal Traction

Xueyuan Wu, Hongbin Zhu, Heng Du, Wei Ma, Chihua Guo

Department of Orthopaedics, The First Affiliated Hospital, Medical School, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China.
Department of Orthopaedics, Xi’an Gaoxin Hospital, Xi’an, China.

DOI: 10.4236/ss.2013.44043                

Abstract

Objective: To determine the efficacy in treatment of vertically unstable sacral fractures with pelvic external fixation and skeletal traction. Patients and Methods: The pelvic external fixation and skeletal traction were applied on 12 cases of vertically unstable sacral fracture (eight males and four females, at age of 19 - 52 years, mean 35.2 years) including two cases of Denis Zone I, nine of Zone II, and one of Zone III. All patients were treated with the pelvic external fixation, and pre- and post-operational longitudinal skeletal traction. Results: The mean operation time, skeletal traction time, skeletal traction removal time and full weight bearing time were 38 min, 4.5 weeks, 8.5 weeks, and 10.3 weeks respectively. All these patients were followed up for 12 - 36 months (average, 22.5 months), which showed no associated complication. The function results were rated as excellent in four cases, good in six and fair in two, with a mean score of 84.4 points, according to Majeed scoring system. Conclusion: The anterior pelvic external fixation with continuous skeletal traction can reliably restore and stabilize the vertically unstable sacrum fracture with excellent functional and radiographic outcomes. It is an ideal method to treat unstably vertical sacral fracture.

Keywords

Fracture Fixation; External; Traction; Sacrum

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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