CRACKCast E049 – General Principles to Orthopedic Injuries

This episode of CRACKCast covers Rosen’s Chapter 049, General Principles to Orthopedic Injuries. This is a new section of Rosen’s to cover and this episode lays a foundation for more a more in-depth look at specific injury patterns moving forward.

Shownotes – PDF Here

Rosen’s in Perspective

Management principles

• Reasons for urgent orthopedic consultation:
  • Long bone #s
  • Open fractures
  • Fractures or injuries violating joints
  • Neurovascular compromise
• See Table 49-1 for a list of >40 fracture eponyms
• Principles
  • Get key information from patient re: age, mechanism of injury, chief complaint, medical Hx
  • Do a physical exam to predict the injury and what additional imaging is needed
  • If imaging shows no #, but patient examines as clinically having a # → TREAT as a fracture
  • Get adequate imaging!
  • Generally obtain an X-Ray before reducing a dislocation (unless in some potential field situations)
  • Assess and document neurovascular status before, during and after any reduction / immobilization
  • Don’t discharge any patient who can’t safely ambulate
  • Patients need good discharge instructions: things to monitor and potential complications

Fractures

Fracture nomenclature

General descriptors:

• Closed or Open
  • Open if the bone can be exposed to the outside environment in ANY way: e.g. A small puncture wound even in close proximity should be assessed and considered
• Exact anatomic location:
  • Bone name, left/right, and reference points:
    • g. Right posterior tibial tubercle
    • Long bones are divided into thirds
• Describe the direction of the fracture line
  • Transverse
  • Oblique
  • Spiral
  • Comminuted (>2 fragments)
• Position and alignment of the fracture fragments:
  • The amount of displacement of the distal fragment is always described first
  • Valgus = angling AWAY from the midline
  • Varus = angling of the part is toward the midline
  • Alignment: the relationship of the long axis of one fragment to another → creating angulation. Defined by the apex
  • Rotational deformity: very important in the hand
• Descriptive modifiers:
  • Complete = both cortices disrupted. Incomplete = only one
  • Assess articular involvement (at high risk for articular arthropathy)
  • Avulsion: when a bony fragment is pulled away from its normal position due to a tendon / muscle / ligament (phalaynx or humeral head)
  • Impaction: forceful collapse of a fragment into the bone – vertebral, humeral head
  • Pathologic: a fracture through abnormal bone.
    • Primary or metastatic cancer,
    • Cysts,
    • Osteogenesis imperfecta
    • Scurvy
    • Rickets
    • Paget’s disease
    • Osteoporotic bone – due to a disease (polio)
  • Stress fracture: repeated low intensity forces leading to the resorption of bone: running, sports, dancing.
    • Due to intrinsic and extrinsic causes: training regimen, equipment, nutrition, hormones.
    • Tibia, fibula, metatarsals, navicular, cuneiform, calcaneus, femoral neck, femoral shaft.
• Fracture eponyms: used to describe fractures BEFORE radiography existed

Fracture Healing

• Process:
  • Hematoma formation which bridges the fracture fragments
  • Inflammation leading to granulation tissue formation
  • Resorption phase – joints the fragments with a procallus
  • REmineralization phase – calcium phosphate and osseous metaplasia
  • Callus resorption
    • Callus usually appears on radiographs around 3 weeks
• Takes 2-4 months for bone consolidation in normal adults
  • Oblique fractures heal more quickly
  • Healing faster in kids and slower in the elderly
• Factors affecting healing time:
  • Age
  • Type of bone: cancellous > cortical
  • Fracture opposition
  • Systemic states (hypothyroid, renal disease, illness)
  • Drugs – steroids
  • Exercise – helps speed healing, hypoxia slows healing
• Delayed Union: longer than usual time to unite
• Malunion: residual deformity post-union
• Nonunion : failure to unite → may lead to a pseudoarthrosis

Fractures in Children

• Properties:
  • More common to have incomplete fractures
    • Greenstick # – incomplete angulated fractures of long bones
    • Torus # – incomplete fracture with wrinkling/buckling of the cortex ***can be VERY subtle***

• Epiphyses – are made of cartilage and are radiolucent
  • ***Don’t neglect to consider injury to the physis: as a potential fracture*** due to compression or shearing. This may require a comparison view of the other extremity – and should be described using the SALTER system.

• SALTER:
  • I: a slip in the provisional calcification zone
    • Dx clinically as tenderness and swelling over an epiphysis (.e.g lateral ankle)
    • ***tenderness over an epiphysis = salter I fracture, NOT a sprain, because the ligaments are weaker*** (except lateral ankle – based on recent research)
  • II: 75% of all epiphyseal #s.
    • Very low risk of growth disruption, can be managed non-operatively
  • III: involves the articular surface, germinal layer and growth plate
    • At high risk for growth disturbance
  • IV: through and through. Often need surgery and close follow-up
  • V:
    • Most commonly in the knee and ankle
    • Difficult to see on radiograph
    • NEED an MRI to dx in some cases to look for hemorrhage or edema
  • Physical injuries most common in boys 12-15 yrs old. And girls 9-12 yr old
  • Most common sites for growth arrest.
    • Distal radius, phalanges, distal tibia
    • Most salter I and II can be fixed with a closed reduction and follow-up for premature physeal closure: more prevalent if > 3 mm displacement post-reduction
    • Growth arrest most common in the distal femur, distal and proximal tibia and distal radius.

Diagnostic Modalities for Fracture Diagnosis

• Plain radiography
  • 2-3 views are the mainstay
    • Fractures best seen when x-ray is parallel to the beam
  • NEVER accept one view
  • Occult fractures may be missed – until bone absorbs at 7-10 days post injury
  • Stress views – rarely helpful, and may make the injury worse
  • Comparison views
    • Helpful in pediatrics to assess growth plates and bone maturity
    • Helpful to assess for congenital abnormalities that may be present bilaterally
    • Help assess for fat/fluid levels
  • Nutrient arteries may mislead as a fracture:
    • They are fine: sharply corticated, and less radiolucent than fractures
  • Pseudofractures may appear from folded clothing or bandages
  • Accessory ossicles are well corticated and smoothly defined
• Bone scanning
  • Radionuclide useful for:
    • Stress #s
    • Acute osteomyelitis
    • Tumours
  • CT
    • Most accurate method of imaging bony #s, displacement, and fragmentation
    • Very useful for
      • Spinal imaging
      • Knee
      • Acetabulum
      • Wrist
      • Ankle
      • Salter IV #s
    • MRI
      • Helpful for:
        • Osteochondral lesions, cartilage, ligaments, meniscus, disks,
      • Ultrasound
        • Can very accurately dx disruptions of bony cortices:
          • Long bones
          • Orbital floor
          • Ankle/foot
          • Rib fractures

1) List 10 complications of fractures

2) Describe the classification system for open fractures

As above:

1. Recognize the emergency
2. Begin irrigation (after pain control!!)
3. Cefazolin (for Grade I)
   1. Add Gentamicin for Grade II-III
   2. Alternatively: broad spectrum such as Pip-Tazo.
4. Advocate for early debridement and irrigation in the OR within 24 hrs

Exceptions:

• Open distal tuft fracture of the finger
  • Need vigorous irrigation and debridement with adequate primary closure (assuming adequate arterial flow!).

3) Link the nerve injury expected with the following orthopedic injuries:

a)    Distal radius

i) Median nerve

• Motor: OK sign
• Sensation to 1-3 fingers

b)    Elbow

i) Median or Ulnar nerve

• As above
• Ulnar:
  • Motor: finger abduction, squeezing a piece of paper in-between 4-5th digit
  • Sensation: 4-5th digit

c)    Shoulder dislocation

i) Axillary nerve

• Motor: deltoid
• Sensation: Sergeant’s patch

d)    Sacral

i) Cauda equina syndrome

• Bladder and bowel symptoms
• Loss of anal wink
• Saddle anesthesia

e)    Acetabular fracture

i) Sciatic nerve

• Motor: plantar flexion, knee flexion, lower leg muscles. Spares the hamstrings
• Sensory: peroneal, tibial, sural

f)     Hip fracture

i) Femoral nerve

• Motor: quads weakness
• Sensation: anterior or medial thigh

g)    Femoral shaft fracture

i) Sciatic

• Motor: leg weakness of the lower leg
• Same as sciatic.

h)    Knee dislocation

i) Tibial or peroneal

• Peroneal
  • Weak dorsiflexion and eversion
  • dorsum of foot, first webspace, lateral foot.
• Tibial:
  • Motor: foot muscle atrophy
  • Sensation: sole of foot and distal toes.

i)      Lateral tibial plateau fracture

i) Common Peroneal

• As above

4) List 10 causes of compartment syndrome

• See Box 49-3 for a huge list!
• Increased tissue pressure → increased venous pressure → impaired local circulation and hypoxia
  • Pressures above diastolic BP, but below SBP
  • Reduced aterio-venous gradient at the tissue level
    • → histamine release to help dilate capillaries → increased capillary membrane permeability
      • → leak of proteins and fluid into the surrounding tissue
        • → compartment pressure keeps increasing!
          • Venous blood flow impaired as capillary pressure is exceeded
            • Arterial blood flow fails (pulses maintained until LATE!)
              • Ischemic necrosis and cell death!

5) List 7 physical findings in compartment syndrome

• At risk locations: – see Box 49-4
  • Calf
  • Thigh
  • Forearm
• This is a clinical diagnosis!
  • “This is the hallmark diagnosis in a conscious fully alert patient who has pain that is disproportionate to the injury or physical findings”
  • Subjective complaints are important indicators of compartment syndrome
• Skin colour, temperature, capillary refill, and distal pulses are all unreliable indicators (as are pallor, and loss of pulses!)
• Rate of extremity swelling peaks at the 36-48 hr mark post injury

1. POOP to PxF
2. Deep, burning, unrelenting, difficult to localize pain
3. Increasing need for analgesics
4. Pain on passive stretching of the muscle groups
5. Pain with active flexion of the muscle groups
6. Hypoesthesias or paresthesias in the distribution of nerves crossing the compartment
7. Tenderness / tenseness of the compartment

The five P’s

• These are NOT signs of compartment syndrome, rather they are signs of acute disruption of arterial flow

6) Describe the management of compartment syndrome

• Elevating the limb may be counterproductive – because it decreases the local arterial pressure
• Normal compartment pressure is 0 mmHg
  • Microcirculation is impaired when tissue pressures > 30 mmHg
    • But this VARIES person to person based on their tolerance to ischemia
  • “Inadequate perfusion and ischemia begin when tissue pressure in a closed compartment are within 20 mmHg of a patient’s diastolic BP
  • OR Within 30 mmHg of the MAP
  • When tissue pressure = or exceeds the patients DBP tissue perfusion ceases
• Intra-compartmental pressures don’t measure muscle and nerve ischemia, they just identify a ripe environment where this ischemia could occur

Diagnostic tests:

• Two techniques:
  • Slit-catheter
  • Side-port needle
    • Stryker compartmental pressure monitor:
      • Make sure that it is zeroed in the plane in which the needle will be inserted
      • A single measurement is not as important as serial measurements
    • Doppler ultrasound is NOT useful.

Management:

1. Fasciotomy STAT
2. Fasciotomy within 12 hrs
3. Fasciotomy and DON’T elevate the limb (slight dependency)
4. Manage rhabdomyolysis, hyperkalemia, lactic acidosis.

7) List 5 bones predisposed to AVN

1. Femoral head
2. Talus
3. Scaphoid
4. Lunate
5. Capitate

Lippism: FeTal ScaPLuna?

• OR all the crescent moon-shaped bones in the hand and…

8) Describe diagnostic criteria for CRPS

9) List 6 complications of prolonged immobility

Wisecracks

1) Describe fat embolism syndrome and its management

2) What is the most common site of compartment syndrome?

• Anterior compartment of the lower leg

3) Are open or closed fractures at higher risk of compartment syndrome?

   OPEN!

• But as many as 30% of people (based on the UK study listed in Rosen’s) only had soft tissue injuries WITHOUT fracture!
• High risk populations: men < 35, bleeding disorders, anticoagulation, MVC’s or sports injuries.

4) Please differentiate between sprain, strain and bursitis

Sprain: “Ligamentous injuries resulting from an abnormal motion of a joint”

• 1st degree – minor tearing of ligamentous fibers w/ mild hemorrhage and swelling.
• 2nd degree – partial tear of ligament with moderate hemorrhage / swelling
• 3rd degree – complete tearing of ligament

Strain: “injury to musculotendinous unit resulting from violent contraction or excessive forcible stretch”

• 1st degree – minor tearing of muscle and/or tendon fibers w/ mild hemorrhage and swelling.
• 2nd degree – partial tear of muscle and/or tendon fibers with moderate hemorrhage / swelling
• 3rd degree – complete tearing of muscle and/or tendon fibers with possible avulsion fracture

Bursitis. – bursa is mad. Usually overuse or traumatic. Supportive care.

5) Please differentiate between tendonitis and tendonosis

Tendonitis classic def: inflammatory condition characterized by pain at tendinous insertions into bone, occurring in the setting of overuse

• Now thought to be more than just overuse – load and use interact to affect cell-matrix interaction

Tendonosis – contentious name that describes more chronic conditions: eg. degenerative changes, chronic tendinopathy, or partial rupture

Common Sites for Tendinitis

• Rotator cuff of the shoulder
• Achilles tendon
• Radial aspect of the wrist (de Quervain’s tenosynovitis),
• Insertion of the hand extensors on the lateral humeral epicondyle (tennis elbow).
• Patellar tendon
• Biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus (hamstring syndrome);
• Posterior tibial tendon (shin splint syndrome)
• Iliotibial band;
• Common wrist extensors (medial epicondylitis) (little league pitchers and golfers)

Clinical Pearl:

• Don’t forget about calcific tendonitis common to the common shoulder, wrist, hand, neck, hip, knee, ankle, or foot
• Subluxations and dislocations …..go read the textbook!

This post was uploaded and copyedited by Riley Golby (@RileyJGolby) 

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Chris Lipp

Chris Lipp is one of the founding Fathers for CrackCast. He currently divides his time as an EM Physician in Calgary (SHC/FMC) and in Sports Medicine (Innovative Sport Medicine Calgary). His interests are in paediatrics, endurance sports, exercise as medicine, and wilderness medical education. When he isn’t outdoors with his family, he's brewing a coffee or dreaming up an adventure…..

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CRACKCast Co-founder and newly minted FRCPC emergency physician from the University of British Columbia. Currently spending his days between a fellowship in critical care and making sure his toddler survives past age 5.

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