OBJECTIVETo explore clinical efficacy of closed reduction and external fixation under local anesthesia for the treatment of high-risk elderly patients with intertrochanteric fracture.

METHODSFrom March 2013 to March 2015, 10 patients with intertrochanteric fractures treated with closing reduction and external fixator under local anesthesia were analyszed, including 4 males and 6 females, aged from 69 to 88 years old with an average of 75.2 years old. All fractures were caused by injury and classified to type I (5 cases), II (3 cases), and V (2 cases) according to Evans classification. According to American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), 6 cases were type III and 4 cases were type IV. Blood loss,operative time,hospital stays, postoperative complications, ambulation time and fracture healing time were observed, and Harris scoring were used to evaluate hip joint function.

RESULTSAll patients were followed up from 3 to 23 months with an average of 13.1 months. One patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease died for non-operation reason at 4 months after operation, the other fractures were healed at stage I, the mean fracture healing time was 5.6 months. There were no coxa vara, lower limb venous thrombosis, loosen and remove of needle passage. The average operative time was 46 min, blood loss was (35.00 ± 8.46) ml without blood transfusion. One patient was occurred pulmonary infection and stent-tract infection on the 2 nd and 3 rd day after operation, and improved with active anti-infection and dressing change; the other patients gone to ground activity at 4.2 d after operation. The patients stayed hospital for 10.6 d on average. According to Harris scoring at final following-up, the total score was 83.42 ± 3.27, 3 cases obtained excellent results, 5 cases good and 1 case poor.

CONCLUSIONClosed reduction and external fixation under local anesthesia in treating high-risk elderly patients with intertrochanteric fracture,which has advantages of shorter operative time, less blood loss, good recovery of postoperative function, is a safe, stable and economic method.