Knee pain correlates with union after tibial nailing.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the change in quantitatively scored knee pain during union. This is a retrospective review of prospectively collected data over a 15-year period. Academic medical center. All patients treated with an intramedullary nail were evaluated for knee pain and union. Four hundred twenty-eight patients with 443 tibia fractures were included. All tibia fractures were treated with an intramedullary nail. Patient-based knee pain was scored from 0 to 3. Fracture union was also graded using a modified Hammer score based on cortical bridging and remodeling. We found a significant inverse association between pain and union score (P < 0.01). In contradistinction, there was not a correlation between time from surgery and pain (P = 0.13). Because union score and time were related, a model was created with both parameters. This model demonstrated a statistical correlation with union score (P < 0.01), but not for time from surgery (P = 0.18). We postulated that knee pain may correlate with either union or time from surgery. We found a statistically significant, negative correlation between knee pain and fracture union. There was no such association between pain and time from surgery.