Abstract: Background: Proximal humeral fractures are one of the commonest fractures in elderly population. They are right behind hip and distal radius fractures in incidence constituting about 1/7th of all fractures. Due to the debatable management of proximal humerus fractures in elderly population, we decided to evaluate the long term outcome of the same.
Method: In this study 62 patients having proximal humerus fracture were included who were treated with locking plate fixation over a period of 4 years. Out of those patients, 51 patients who completed 3 years of follow up were evaluated for this study by using Constant Morley score (CMS). We used SPSS 16 for statistical analysis. (P <0.04).
Result: Excellent outcome was seen in 17.64%; Good in 35.32%; Moderate in 33.32% and Poor in 13.72%. Score was found to be less in AO-OTA Type 3 fractures & for older patients (>60 years age). Loss of fixation was seen more with a varus malalignment. Complications included Infection, avascular necrosis, loss of fixation, axillary nerve palsy, screw perforation of head and sub acromial impingement.
Conclusion: The use of PHLP for fixation of Proximal Humerus fractures leads to reasonably good functional outcomes. It is much better than the use of non-locking plates. However the procedure requires extensive surgical skill and knowledge of mechanisms of locking plates.
