A systematic review of management of scapular fractures

There is no agreement within literature regarding management of scapula fractures. Our aim was to carry out a systematic review of literature on management of the scapular fractures. Our search across multiple medical databases for studies on the scapular fractures until February 2014 yielded 32 studies. We have excluded case series <7 patients, case reports, review articles, articles without abstract, observational studies and articles on fractures following shoulder arthroplasty. There were 8 prospective case series and one cohort study, however, majority of the included studies were retrospective studies. There were 1237 patients, follow up data were available for 941 patients who underwent either conservative (629) or operative management (512). Non-operative management scapular body fractures had satisfactory results. The scapular neck fractures displaced <10mm have satisfactory outcome following non-operative management. Operative management of displaced glenoid fossa fractures and scapular neck fractures displaced >10mm lead in a better functional outcome.