Whether Assisted Intramedullary Nail Implantation Without Traction Table is as Safe and Effective as Using Traction Table of Older Intertrochanteric Fracture Patients?

PURPOSE: Despite promising clinical outcome proposals, there has been relatively little published regarding the use of traction table-assisted intramedullary nail implantation for intertrochanteric fractures. The purpose of this study is to further summarize and evaluate published clinical studies comparing the clinical outcomes of using traction table and without traction table in the management of intertrochanteric fracture. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search using PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase was systematically performed to evaluate all studies included in the literature up to May 2022. The search terms included “intertrochanteric fractures”, “hip fractures”, and “traction table” with Boolean operators “AND” and “OR”. The following information was extracted and summarized: demographic information, setup time, surgical time, amount of bleeding, fluoroscopy exposure time, reduction quality, and Harris Hip Score (HHS). RESULTS: A total of eight clinical controlled studies involving 620 patients were eligible for the review. The mean age at the time of injury was 75.3 years (traction table group 75.7 years, non-traction table group 74.9 years). The most common assisted intramedullary nail implantation method of non-traction table group included lateral decubitus position (4 studies), traction repositor, (3 studies) and manual traction (1 studies). Included studies results all support that there was no difference between the two groups in terms of reduction quality and Harris Hip Score, and the non-traction table group had an advantage in terms of setup time. However, there were still disputes in terms of surgical time, amount of bleeding and fluoroscopy exposure time. CONCLUSION: For patients with intertrochanteric fractures, assisting intramedullary nail implantation without traction table is as safe and effective as using traction table and doing so without a traction table may be more advantageous in terms of setup time.