Clinical outcomes of operative repair of complete rupture of the proximal interphalangeal joint collateral ligament: Comparison with non-operative treatment

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes of non-operative treatment andoperative repair of grade III injuries with complete rupture of the collateral ligament of the proximalinterphalangeal (PIP) joint.Patients and methods: Seventeen patients with grade III injuries with at least 6 months of follow-up wereincluded. Seven patients underwent non-operative treatment and 10 patients underwent operativetreatment. We evaluated the following clinical outcomes after treatment: 1) range of motion of the PIPand distal interphalangeal (DIP) joints, 2) joint stability, 3) pain score, and 4) amount of fusiformdeformity of the PIP joint.Results: There was no instability in the lateral stress test in either group. The ranges of motion of the PIPand DIP joints were not statistically different between the two groups atŞnal follow-up. However, theranges of motion recovered more quickly in the operative group than the non-operative group within theŞrst 3 months after treatment. Patients in the operative group had less pain and better cosmeticappearance of the PIP joint.Conclusion: Our results suggest that operative repair of the PIP collateral ligament can provide good jointstability, rapid functional recovery, and minimize fusiform deformity of the PIP joint.Level of evidence: Level III, Therapeutic study.© 2016 Turkish Association of Orthopaedics and Traumatology. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. This isan open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)