Health-related Quality of Life After Fractures of the Lateral Third of the Clavicle in Children and Adolescents.

INTRODUCTION

The health-related quality of life after pediatric fractures of the lateral third of the clavicle is unknown. Given the trend in the literature toward surgical management of clavicular fractures in adults, we frequently receive referrals for surgical management of lateral clavicular fractures in children.Therefore, we examined (1) the health-related quality of life of patients who sustained a fracture of the lateral third of the clavicle in childhood and who were treated at a large regional pediatric trauma center, (2) if the health-related quality of life was associated with the age at the time of the injury, and (3) whether fracture and displacement patterns were associated with health-related qualify of life.

METHODS

This is a retrospective case series. We were able to identify 69 patients (21 girls and 48 boys) who sustained a fracture of the lateral third of the clavicle between the period spanning from January 2004 to June 2015. These patients were asked to fill in a questionnaire that included the Quick version of the Disability of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) (primary outcome) and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (Peds-QL). Until July 2017, we were able to get a response from 56 of these patients, resulting in a follow-up of 81%.

RESULTS

Treatment was conservative in all cases but one. In these cases, after a mean follow-up of 6.5 years (range, 1 to 13.2 y), the mean Quick-DASH was 1.2 (SD, 4.4) at a scale of 0 to 100, with lower values representing better quality of life. The mean physical function score of the Peds-QL was 97.8 (SD, 4.4), and the mean psychosocial function score was 91.8 (SD, 10.8), both at a scale of 0 to 100, with higher values representing better quality of life.There was no statistically significant association of age at the time of injury on the primary outcome Quick-DASH.There were no statistically significant associations between fracture or displacement patterns with regard to health-related quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS

Conservative treatment of lateral clavicular fractures in children and adolescents is associated with excellent health-related quality of life, as measured with the disease-specific Quick-DASH and the non-disease-specific Peds-QL at a mean follow-up of 6.5 years (range, 1 to 13.2 y). There was no effect of age at the time of injury, and we were unable to identify associations to commonly analyzed risk factors, such as displacement patterns.As the conservative treatment of this type of fracture in children and adolescents is associated with such a good health-related quality of life, it is unlikely that these results could be further improved by surgical interventions.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level IV-case series.