gms | German Medical Science

Objectives/Interrogation: To evaluate the clinical results of the transverse two-hole mini plate for the mallet fractures.

Methods: We investigated 155 patients (157 fingers) who suffered from the mallet fracture and treated with a transverse two-hole mini plate. The series comprised 122 men and 33 women with an average age of 33.2±10.9 years (range: 16-62 years). The injury occurred in the right hand in 90 patients and in the left hand in 65. The little finger was the most commonly injured digit (66 cases), followed by the ring finger (48 cases), long (30 cases), index (11 cases) and thumb (2 cases). The acute cases (the time between the injury and operation was less than 2 weeks) were 126 while the chronic cases were 29. Preoperative anteroposterior and lateral radiographs were obtained in all cases. On the lateral view, the articular surface of the fragment was measured as a percentage of the entire joint surface.

Results and Conclusions: The average articular surface of the fragment was measured at 39% (range: 12-67%) of the joint surface with subluxation occurred in 31 injured fingers. Mean follow-up was 5.0±3.9 months. The extensor rupture was only found in 6.3% acute cases. All the patients got bone union. The average flexion of the distal interphalangeal joint was 66.5°±14.0°, and extensor lag was 2.3°±3.6°. According to Crawford's criteria, 47 out of 157 fingers got excellent results, 95 got good results, and 15 got a fair result. The complication rate 8.9%, including superficial infection, skin irritation and joint steps. Statistical analysis only showed a negative correlation between age and range of motion with a coefficient of -0.293 (p=0.026).