Comparison of postoperative pain and analgesic drug consumption between long and short intra-medullary nail in the treatment of elderly patients with intertrochanteric fracture
DING Luobing
XU Weizhen
LIU Hui
LUO Deqing
ZHANG Jinhui
WU Jin
Abstract：Objective To compare the postoperative pain and analgesic drug consumption of long and short intramedullary nail in the treatment of intertrochanteric fracture in the elderly.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on clinical data of 190 elderly patients with intertrochanteric fracture who were treated with intramedullary nail from January 2021 to December 2022.Eighty patients with intramedullary nail length more than or equal to 280 mm were included in the long nail group,and 110 patients with intramedullary nail length less than or equal to 240 mm were included in the short nail group.The time when the analgesic pump was first turned on,the pain score of visual analogue scale(VAS)at 0-24 h and 24-48 h after surgery,and the dosage of postoperative analgesic drugs were compared between the two groups.Results There were no statistical differences in pain VAS scores between the long nail group and the short nail group at 0-24 h and 24-48 h after surgery(both P>0.05).In the long nail group,the time of first opening of analgesic pump was earlier than that in short nail group[(10.32±2.57)h vs(13.42±1.29)h],the postoperative doses of ibuprofen[(1.10±0.11)g vs(0.80±0.09)g],tramadol[(0.30±0.02)g vs(0.20±0.01)g],and oxycodone acetaminophen[(0.99±0.07)g vs(0.66±0.04)g]were all higher than those of short nail group,the differences were statistically significant(all P<0.001).Conclusions In elderly patients with intertrochanteric fractures of the femur,the use of long intramedullary nails may be associated with an increased risk of postoperative pain and a higher requirement for analgesic medication when compared with short intramedullary nails.
Keywords：AgedHip fracturesFracture fixationintramedullaryIntramedullary nailLength of intramedullary nailPostoperative complicationsVisual analog scaleAnalgesics
Publication Date：2024-04-15
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 93-97 )