Effect of postoperative ambulation starting time on outcome of patients with acetabular fractures combined with ipsilateral femoral fractures

Abstract

Objective To investigate relationship between start time of postoperative ambulation (partial weight bearing) and hip joint function rehabilitation in patients with acetabular and ipsilateral femoral fractures by studying the late hip joint function.Methods The study involved 37 patients with acetabular and ipsilateral femoral fractures treated from January 2007 to June 2011,including 16 patients with associated femoral head fractures,17 femoral shaft fractures,two greater trochanteric fractures,and two distal femoral fractures.According to the starting time of postoperative ambulation (partial weight bearing),the patients were divided into three groups,ie,Group A (≤ 2 months),Group B (≤ 3 months) and Group C (＞ 3 months).Harris score system was used to evaluate late hip function of the patients.Further,differences of Harris excellent-good rate among groups were analyzed.Results All patients were followed up for 14-66 months (mean 44.9 months).Fractures were all healed based on postoperative examination.Excellent-good rate of hip function was 87％ (13/15) in Group A,42％ (5/ 12) in Group B,and 40％ (4/10) in Group C,with significantly superior results in Group A than that in Groups B and C (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Stable internal fixation and early postoperative ambulation (partial weight bearing) favors hip function rehabilitation in patients with acetabular and ipsilateral femoral fractures.Patients who start ambulation (partial weight bearing) within two months after operation obtain better hip function recovery than those who start ambulation two months later. Key words: Hip joint; Femoral fractures; Hip function