Houben IB, et al. - Authors ascertained the impact of timing of weight bearing after a surgically treated tibial shaft fracture. An independent association of delay in initial weight bearing with impaired fracture healing in surgically treated tibial shaft fractures was noted. Early resumption of weight bearing could be influenced by the treating physician and this factor thus had a direct clinical relevance, unlike other factors such as fracture type or soft tissue condition. Findings suggested that in fracture fixation, early resumption of weight bearing ought to be the treatment goal.

Methods

• Researchers retrospectively studied the surgically treated diaphyseal tibial fractures between 2007 and 2015.
• They analysed the timing of initial weight bearing (IWB) as a predictor for impaired healing in a multivariate regression.

Results

• As per data, experts included totally, 166 diaphyseal tibial fractures, 86 cases with impaired healing and 80 with normal healing.
• They noted the mean age to be 38.7 years (range 16–89).
• In the normal fracture healing group (2.6 vs 7.4 weeks, p < 0.001), the mean time until IWB was significantly shorter.
• Findings demonstrated that 4 possible confounders were yielded by correlation analysis: Infection requiring surgical intervention, fracture type, fasciotomy and open fractures.
• Results suggested the logistic regression identified IWB as an independent predictor for impaired healing with an odds ratio of 1.13 per week delay (95% CI 1.03–1.25).