Clavicular fracture non-union surgical outcome and complications

Symptomatic clavicular fracture non-union is rare. When it does occur, however, it may pose a difficult problem causing pain and functional impairment. The emphasis of this paper is on preopertive disabilities and the postoperative outcome and complications. Twenty patients with clavicular non-union treated operatively from 1989 to 1997 were reviewed, the average follow up was thirty-four months. Eleven fractures were midshaft, eight were lateral third and one medial third. A detailed proforma was completed with the patients documenting preoperative symptoms, outcome after surgery and complications. A literature search was carried out to find out the incidence of complications related to operating on post-traumatic clavicular non-union. All of the twenty fractures non-unions duly united after surgical intervention although three required early adjustment or change of metal work. The subjective and objective outcomes were good in 19 cases and poor in one. The postoperative complications included three implant failures, one stiff shoulder, two patients with numbness below the scar and one patient with an infected donor site wound. The literature search revealed that from 24 publications and 301 patients who had operations for clavicular non-union ther were 18 (6%) reported complications related to metal work, 45 (15%) reported complications related to soft tissues, seven (2%) complications related to the scar and 24 (8%) failures of union. Symptomatic clavicular non-union can cause severe disabilities. Good outcome, at low risk, can be expected from internal fixation and bone grafting of midshaft non-unions. Although there are only eight cases of lateral third clavicular non-unions, this is the largest series in the literature. Furthermore, the study clearly demonstrates both the difficulties treating this fracture surgically and a procedure to be avoided (acromio-clavicular bridging), which, again has not been previously addressed.