[Recent trends in the treatment of lower leg fractures]

Indications of appropriate treatment of tibial shaft fractures are one of the priority problems present-day traumatology has to address. In choosing the optimal mode of treatment of tibial shaft fractures not only the configuration of the fracture but also injury of soft tissues has been assigned increasing importance. At the Department of Traumatology of the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine in Bratislava, 962 tibial shaft fractures were treated over the period of 12 years from 1977-1988. Conservative treatment was applied in 600 fractures and 362 fractures were treated surgically. The therapeutic results obtained by using the newly introduced methods of treating tibial shaft fractures, i.e. functional plating and osteosynthesis by flexible Ender nailing, were analyzed in a retrospective and prospective study. The results of these approaches were compared with those achieved by classical methods of the AO school, rigid intramedullary nailing and external fixation. The favorable outcome of union and the good functional effect obtained in the studied and compared series of patients indicate that conservative functional treatment is the method of choice in tibial shaft fractures. Of the surgical therapeutic methods, flexible as well as stable intramedullary osteosynthesis by Ender nailing proved to be both the most sparing and the most physiological approach. The paper proposes an indication scheme of tibial shaft fracture treatment designed for clinical use considering the categorization of fractures according to up-to-date classification. For each type of tibial shaft fracture and soft tissue injury the optimal mode of treatment is suggested. Besides the main indication, possibilities of alternative treatment are also being pointed out.