Management of supracondylar fracture of humerus with JESS in adults

Abstract

As life expectancy increases overall incidence of distal humeral fractures is increasing worldwide. Objectives: To evaluate the results of JESS External fixator in the management of supracondylar fracture with or without intercondylar extension in adults. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted on thirty adults in a tertiary care Hospital of eastern India after obtaining permission from Institutional ethical committee and consent of the patients in a time span of one year. JESS external fixator was applied within 3 days of admission. Results: According to AO classification 16 cases has C1 fractures and 14 cases had C2 fractures. Among 16 C1 fractures 10 were open injury and 6 were close injury and among 14 C2 fracture 8 were open injuries and 6 were close fractures. The mean duration of JESS application was 16 week. The mean follow-up was 10 months. The functional outcome was evaluated by use of Cassebaum's functional rating system. C1 closed fractures (6 cases) showed excellent results and C2 closed fractures (6 cases) showed good to fair results. Irrespective of injury pattern (open/close) among 16 C1 fracture 12 cases (75%) showed excellent to good results and 4 cases(25%) showed fair result in contrast to 14 cases of C2 fracture where only 2(14%) cases showed good result and rest 12 cases(86%) showed fair to poor results. Irrespective of fracture pattern among 12 close fracture 8 cases (67%) showed good to excellent results and 4 case (33%) showed fair results. Among 18 open cases 6 cases (33%) showed good results and 12 cases (67%) showed poor to fair results. Conclusions: JESS-external fixation technique represents a viable option in the management of open as well as close intercondylar fractures of the distal humerus.