Reliability of Evaluation of the Surgeon-Dependent Factors Affecting Mechanical Failure after Intertrochanteric Femur Fracture Treatment.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The intertrochanteric femur fractures seen in the elderly population are usually treated surgically. Mechanical failure of this treatment is a serious complication and to prevent this, many assessment factors have been described such as tip-apex distance, reduction quality etc. The aim of this study is to evaluate the intra- and inter-observer reliability of modifiable factors evaluated after the treatment of intertrochanteric fractures. MATERIAL AND METHODS The early post-operative radiographs of sixty-two patients treated with PFN-A were evaluated. Six observers with 8 to 27 years of experience in hip trauma surgery were asked to measure tip apex distance (TAD), calcar referenced TAD (calTAD), collo-diaphyseal angle (CDA) and evaluate the position of helical blade and also fracture reductions according to Baumgaertner and Chang criteria on these radiographs. Fleiss kappa and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) values were calculated for inter-observer and intra-observer reliability assessment, respectively. RESULTS Inter-observer reliability values for both evaluations were moderate (fleiss κ: 0.417-0.455) for TAD measurements, moderate (fleiss κ: 0.418-0.458) for calTAD measurements, fair (fleiss κ: 0.302-0.288) for CDA measurements, substantial (fleiss κ: 0.606-0.631) for antero-posterior zone evaluation, moderate (fleiss κ: 0.550-0.546) for lateral zone assessment, fair-moderate (fleiss κ: 0.353-0.453) for Baumgaertner reduction quality assessment, and fair-moderate (fleiss κ: 0.365- 0.456) for Chang reduction quality assessment. Intra-observer reliabilities were found to be moderate to good for TAD and calTAD measurements, moderate for CDA measurements, good to excellent for AP and lateral zone and Baumgaertner reduction quality criteria assessments and good for Chang reduction quality criteria assessment. DISCUSSION There is no large data on the subject of the present study in the literature. There is a single article evaluating the reliability of more than one evaluation criteria in which only two observers' findings were evaluated in the literature. As in our study, more accurate inferences can be made with the increase in the number of observers. Unlike the literature, the inter-observer reliabilities of TAD and calTAD which have a very important place in the postoperative evaluation of these fractures were found as "moderate'' instead of "excellent'' in our study, CONCLUSIONS It was determined that only the inter-observer reliability of antero-posterior zone evaluation was substantial. The inter-observer reliability of all other measurements and evaluations were fair to moderate. Key words: Intertrochanteric fractures, reliability, measurements, reduction quality; TAD, calTAD.