Background: A recent study found that after median term follow-up disability correlated with pain rather than the limited residual impairments in motion and strength. We studied impairment and disability an average of twenty-one years after injury in a cohort of Dutch patient, with the hypothesis that both impairment and disability would be lower in patients that were skeletally immature at the time of injury.
Methods: Seventy-one patients were evaluated an average of 21 years after injury. The majority of the 35 skeletally immature patients were treated conservatively with closed reduction and cast immobilization and the majority of the 36 skeletally mature patients were treated with plate and screw fixation. Objective evaluation included radiographs and measurements of range of motion and grip strength. Questionnaires were used to measure arm-specific disability (Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand: DASH), misinterpretation or over interpretation of pain (Pain Catastrophizing Scale-PCS-), and depression (CES-D). Multivariable analysis of variance and multiple linear regression were used to compare patients that were skeletally mature and immature at the time of injury and to identify predictors of arm-specific disability (SPSS 17.0, SPSS inc., Chicago).
Results: There were 44 men and 27 women with a an average age of forty-one at time of follow-up (range, 20 to 81). Fractures were classified as AO/OTA-type A3 in 46 patients (simple), B3 in 18 (including wedge fragment) and C fractures in 7 patients (comminuted). The average DASH score was 8 points (0 to 54) and 73% reported no pain. Both rotation and wrist flexion/extension were 91% of the uninjured side; grip strength was 94%. There were small, but significant differences in rotation (151 versus 169 degrees, p=0.004) and wrist flexion/extension (123 versus 142 degrees, p=0.002), but not disability between skeletally mature and immature patients. The best predictors of DASH score were nerve damage, pain and grip strength, explaining 56% of the variation in DASH scores. Disability did not correlate with depression or misconceptions about pain.
Conclusions: Twenty-one years after initial fracture, both skeletally immature and mature patients have limited impairment (averaging over 90% motion and grip strength) and disability after non operative and operative treatment respectively. Patients that were skeletally immature at the time of injury had better motion, but comparable disability. Disability correlated with pain rather than motion, but did not correlate with psychosocial measures.
