Effects of surgical revision for humeral shaft nonunion on health-related quality of life / 中华创伤骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the effects of surgical revision for humeral shaft nonunion on health-related quality of life.Methods:The data of 62 patients were studied retrospectively who had been hospitalized at Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Hong-Hui Hospital for humeral shaft nonunion from March 2013 to September 2018. They were 43 males and 19 females, aged from 20 to 73 years (average, 42.3 years). Their nonunions belonged to the atrophic type in 19 cases, to the ischemic type in 14 cases and to the hypertrophic type in 29 cases. Their demographic and clinical data, imaging manifestations and treatment methods were recorded and analyzed. The 12-item short form health survey (SF-12) and brief pain inventory (BPI) were used to evaluate their health-related quality of life and the Mayo elbow performance score (MEPS) was used to evaluate their elbow function.Results:Upon admission, their physical component summary (PCS) scored 24.3±5.2, mental component summary (MCS) 26.3±3.8, brief pain inventory- severity (BPI-S) 6.5±1.9, and brief pain inventory-interference (BPI-I) 6.7±2.5. At 1-year follow-up, their PCS averaged 43.6±8.1, MCS 34.7±4.4, BPI-S 4.9±1.2, and BPI-I 4.4±1.4. There were statistically significant differences between preoperation and postoperation in the above 4 groups of indicators ( P<0.05). Their MEPS at the last follow-up revealed a 95.2% rate of excellent elbow function (59/62). By comparison with the literature data, their postoperative PCS scores were not significantly different from those for the patients with Barrentt＇s esophagus, primary hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and silicosis ( P>0.05). There was no significant difference either in the postoperative MCS scores between them and stroke patients ( P>0.05). Conclusions:As a destructive chronic disease, humeral shaft nonunion has negative effects on physical and mental health and quality of life of the patients. Although the pain effect on the limb can be alleviated by surgical revision, the entire treatment may cause permanent psychological trauma to the patients.