Abstract: Introduction: The following study was conducted to examine the short term clinical and radiological results particularly early complications and healing rate of distal tibia fracture treated by MIPPO using LCP.
Methodology: The study was conducted in patients treated for distal tibia fracture (type A, B & C – AO classification) at Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Science, BG Nagar from the month of Nov 2013 to Nov 2015. Twenty distal tibia fracture patients were taken into the study, all were fixed with LCP by mippo, some with Bone grafting where the distal tibia fractures were associated with bone loss and communition. Patients’ age ranged from 27 to 68 years with a mean of 50.
Results: The sample consisted of twenty patients with 11 males and 09 were female. The patients’ ages ranged from 27-68 years with a mean age of 50 years. The causes of fractures were motorvehicle accident in 13 patients and fall in 07 patients. There were no sports or industrial accidents. 12 fractures involved the right side and 08 involved the left. The average length of hospitalisation was 15 days with a range of 10 to 20 days. The average number of days from injury to surgery was 5 days with a range of 2 to 10 days. The operative time ranged from 45 minutes to 120 minutes. Patients were followed up from 01 to 24 months. Functional outcome was rated as per The modified ankle score of Olerud and Molander, we got excellent results in 10 cases, good in 07, fair in 02 and poor in one patient.
Conclusion: The LCP is a good implant to use for fractures of the distal tibia by mippo method. However, accurate positioning and fixation are required to produce satisfactory results. We recommend use of this implant in Type A, B and C, osteoporotic fractures. Our early results were encouraging but long term studies are needed to prove definitively acceptable outcomes so that the technique can become part of the armamentarium of the orthopaedic trauma surgeon.
