A study on management of fracture of tibia and fibula in dogs by bone plating and intramedullary pinning

The present study was conducted on 18 dogs (age 1 m to 8 yr, body weight 2-44 kg) with fracture of tibia/fibula presented during Oct 2018 to Dec 2019 with the objective to repair/fix the tibia/ fibula fractures in dogs by internal fixation techniques (bone plating and intramedullary pinning). The choice of technique was done on the basis of age of animal, type of fracture. Ten cases were treated by bone plating and 8 by intramedullary pinning. The average healing time of tibia/fibula fracture repaired by bone plating was 45.48±13.69 days. Bone plating provided good to excellent fracture reduction and fixation. Postoperatively there was bending of bone plate in two cases, in one case the distal part of the bone and screws got exposed and in another case there was osteomyelitis and plate induced osteopenia. The average healing time of fracture of tibia/fibula repaired by intramedullary pinning was 34.0±7.12 days without any postoperative complication. The mean weight bearing score was recorded as 8.89±1.11 and 10.0±0.0 out of 10 on final reappraisal day in fracture of tibia/fibula managed by bone plating and intramedullary pinning, respectively. The tibia/fibula fractures in dogs can be efficiently managed by both bone plating and intramedullary pinning but the extent of tissue manipulation and technical difficulty was higher in bone plating with better fracture fixation.