THE COMPLICATIONS OF DIAPHYSEAL FRACTURES OF HUMERUS TREATED BY DYNAMIC COMPRESSION PLATE

Background: humerus fractures constitute about 3 to 5% of all fractures of which majority can be managed by traditional care but some of them will need surgery. the objective of this study was to determine the demographics, modes of injury and complications of diaphyseal fractures of humerus treated by dynamic compression plate. material & methods: this cross-sectional study was carried out in orthopaedics department, dow ojha hospital and civil hospital, karachi, pakistan from july 2014 to june 2016. fifty nine patients having closed diaphyseal humeral shaft fractures were selected through consecutive sampling demographic variables were gender, age groups, & mode of injury. research variable was types of complications. all the variables, being categorical were analyzed through frequency and relative frequency. data was analyzed by using spss statistical package version 18. results: out of 59 patients, 41(69.49%) were males and 18(30.51%) females with male to female ratio of 2.27:1. age groups from 20-30 included 19 (32.20%) cases, 31-40 years 26(44.06%) cases and 41-50 years 14(23.72%) cases. in our study, 38(64.40%) patients were of injury following road traffic accident, 11(18.64%) patients were having history of assault and 10(16.94%) cases were of injury due to fall. the complications seen in this study were infection in 2(3.38%) cases, iatrogenic palsy of the radial nerve in 5(8.47%) cases, non-union in 2 (3.38%) cases, delayed union in 2(3.38%) cases, mal-union in 1(1.69%) cases & stiffness of shoulder joint in 3(5.08%) cases. conclusion: road traffic accidents are the most common cause of diaphyseal humeral shaft fractures in males between 31-40 years of age. iatrogenic palsy of radial nerve is a common complication of dynamic compression plate as surgical treatment of humeral shaft fractures.