Complications of long bone fracture healing in dogs: Functional and radiological criteria for their assessment

The goal of our study was not only to detect the incidence of both minor an d major complications in the long bone fracture treatment in dogs, but also establish a rate of radiographically apparent complications which can be f unctionally tolerable for the patients. The clinical records of 200 dogs wi th fractures of long bones of the limbs treated at the Clinic of Surgery an d Orthopedics at University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Br no from the beginning of January 1998 through the end of June 1999 were rev iewed. Fracture management was performed in 156 dogs with 164 fractures. Th ese fractures were treated by open (86.59% cases) or closed (13.41%) reduct ions and internal fixation (70.73%), external skeletal fixation (25.61%), a nd external coaptation (3.66%). Two groups of clinical patients were create d. Group I consisted of 64 dogs with outcome information obtained from a qu estionnaire. The results of treatment in this group were excellent in 70.31 % cases, very good in 21.88%, and fair in 7.81%. In group II, 92 dogs havin g 100 long bone fractures with complete follow-up information obtained from clinical and radiological examinations at our clinic were included. The re sults of therapy in group II were excellent totally in 81.00% cases, very g ood in 12.00%, fair in 1.00%, and poor in 6.00%. Complications of fracture healing in this group II were assessed. The complications were found mainly in cases with an interval between injury and fracture fixation longer than 4 days (chi(2)-test; p < 0.01). Clinically sound dogs (with excellent resu lt of therapy) were able to functionally tolerate radiographic abnormalitie s in consequence of fracture treatment in 44.45% cases (36 of 81 fractures with excellent outcome of therapy).