Table 5.

Complications following surgical olecranon fracture treatment in all study patients.

	ORIF	TBW	p overall
n	50	82
Fixation failure (%)
No	46 (92.0)	61 (74.4)	0.023
Yes	4 (8.0)	21 (25.6)
Loss of reduction only (%)
No	50 (100.0)	81 (98.8)	1
Yes	0 (0.0)	1 (1.2)
Non-operative management (%)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	–
Surgical management (%)	0 (0.0)	1 (1.2)	1
Metalwork loosening only (%)
No	46 (92.0)	64 (78.0)	0.065
Yes	4 (8.0)	18 (22.0)
Non-operative management (%)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	–
Surgical management (%)	4 (8.0)	18 (22.0)	0.065
Both loss of reduction and metal work loosening (%)
No	50 (100.0)	80 (97.6)	0.705
Yes	0 (0.0)	2 (2.4)
Non-operative management (%)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	–
Surgical management (%)	0 (0.0)	2 (2.4)	0.705
Other complication (%)
No	44 (88.0)	75 (91.5)	0.416
Yes	5 (10.0)	7 (8.5)
Unknown	1 (2.0)	0 (0.0)
Other complication details (%)
Conversion to orif	0 (0.0)	1 (14.3)	0.16
SSI	0 (0.0)	3 (42.9)
Periprosthetic fracture	1 (20.0)	0 (0.0)
Stiffness	0 (0.0)	2 (28.6)
Wound dehiscence	1 (20.0)	0 (0.0)
Unknown	2 (40.0)	1 (14.3)
In hospital death (%)
No	50 (100.0)	80 (97.6)	0.705
Yes	0 (0.0)	2 (2.4)

SD: standard deviation; ORIF: open reduction and internal fixation; TBW: tension band wire and SSI is surgical site infection.

– indicates no test performed.

All values represent numbers of cases and proportion in parentheses unless otherwise stated. Fixation failure describes total number of cases where loss of reduction or metal work loosening or both loss of reduction and metal work loosening occur.