RESEARCH ARTICLE


Radiation Exposure in The Treatment of Pediatric Supracondylar Humerus Fractures: Comparison of Two Fixation Methods



Themistoklis Tzatzairis1, *, Gregory Firth1, Paulien Bijlsma1, Dimitrios Manoukian1, Claudia Maizen1, Manoj Ramachandran1
1 Department of Paediatric Orthopaedics, The Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BB, UK


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Creative Commons License
© 2021 Tzatzairis et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at Department of Paediatric Orthopaedics, The Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BB, UK; Tel: +447923301467; E-mail: ttzatzai@gmail.com or themistoklis.tzatzairis@nhs.net


Abstract

Aim:

The study aims to determine the estimated radiation exposure of two different types of fixation (crossed vs lateral-entry K-wires) for displaced supracondylar fractures at a Major Trauma Centre in London.

Methods:

A retrospective review was performed between 2015 and 2019 in children (<16 years old) who underwent either Closed Reduction and Percutaneous Pinning (CRPP) or open reduction and K wire fixation for a displaced supracondylar fracture (Gartland II, III and IV) of the humerus.

Results:

The overall mean radiation dose and duration with crossed K-wire fixation was statistically lower when compared with two lateral K-wires. The mean radiation dose increased with increasing Gartland Grade - for Gartland Grades II, III and IV respectively.

Conclusion:

The current study showed statistically significant decreased radiation dose in crossed K-wire fixation method, compared to lateral-entry fixation. No difference was found regarding the cosmetic/functional outcome when Flynn’s criteria were applied.

Keywords: Supracondylar, Children, Radiation, Fracture, Crossed K-wire, Supracondylar fracture.