Benefit of Surgical Hardware Removal Following Clavicle Fracture

Elective implant removal accounts for up to 30% of all orthopaedic surgeries. While there is general acceptance about the need of implant removal for obvious reasons, such as infections or implant failure, little is known about the beneficial aspects in cases of minor reasons. Therefore, we initiated this study to define patients' benefit of elective implant removal following plate osteosynthesis of displaced clavicle fractures. Patients and Methods Prospective evaluation of patients was conducted before implant removal and 6 weeks postoperative. Subjective and objective criteria included patients' satisfaction, pain rating on a visual analog scale (VAS) and active range of motion (ROM) pre- and 6 weeks postoperative. Functional scoring included the SPADI, DASH score, the Constant Score and the Munich Shoulder Questionnaire (MSQ).