Fractures of the shaft of the tibia are notoriously difficult to treat. A study of the patients treated at Severance Hospital, Yonsei University Medical Center in Korea over a twelve year period supports this view.
A review of the literature revealed that other centers had also recognized the difficulties inherent in the treatment of fractured tibia, and were facing the same problems.
The results of three hundred sad one fractures among three .hundred patients (218 male and 82 female) were as follows:
1. The healing rate of fractures of the tibia was accelerated in childhood and adolescence, but there was no difference in other age groups. -
2. The incidence of delayed_or non-union of fractures of the ~ lower 1/3 of the tibia wa"s no greater than that of the middle l/3, but it was increased in fractures of the upper 1/3 of the~tibia.
3. Open fractures Af the tibia united later than closed fractures. I 4..Thera was no ~/significant. difference in the"` union rate between different types of fractures
4. except for an increased incidence of delayed op non-union is8egmental fractures.
5. The rate of delayed or .non-nn oa.`was increased to a suprising degree in markedly displaced fracture
6. There was .a dexreased,rate of union in cases of associated fibula fracture.
7. Early weight bearing of the fracture was helpful in fracture union, especially in the tibia.
8. The overall incidence of delayed or non-union of fractures of the tibia was 28.5796, with limited joint motion in 5.9990 of the total.
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