Management of metacarpal and phalangeal fractures with jess fixator

Abstract

Background:The present study was conducted for managing metacarpal and phalangeal fractures with jess fixator.
Materials & methods:The present study was conducted for managing metacarpal and phalangeal fractures with jess fixator. The study consisted of 30 cases of hand trauma meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria, admitted for operative management of metacarpal & phalangeal fractures in Vijayanagara institute of medical sciences hospital, Bellary between December 2020 to August 2022. Cases were selected for JESS external fixator’s application after evaluating the above features.Functional assessment was done based on total active range of movements in degrees of each injured finger separately according to Duncan et al scoring. All the results were recorded in Microsoft excel sheet and were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS software.
Results: The mean age of the patients was 35.33 years.Out of 30 patients, 50.0% of patients had excellent recovery of range of movements, 36.7% of patients had good recovery and 13.3% of patients had fairly recovered range of movements of fingers. There is good functional outcome in patients undergoing JESS fixation in fractures of the metacarpal and phalanges. Out of 30 cases, in 15 patients (50.0%) fracture union was seen in the range of 0—8 weeks, in 10 patients (33.4%) fracture union was seen in the range of 9—12 weeks. In 2 patients(3.3%) fracture union seen in 12-20 weeks range.
Conclusion: Patients with communited fractures, open fractures, intra- articular fractures require operative reduction and stabilization to obtain the optimal position for bone healing and to allow early movement.JESS method is a simple and good alternative to established methods of management of small bone fractures which are open, intraarticular, comminuted.