Clinical and radiographic outcomes of 31 patients with humeral diaphyseal fractures submitted to surgery with intramedullary shafts were studied. From these, four patients presented fractures at the shaft insertion site and were treated using a different method. From the 27 patients left, the healing rate was 96.1%, with an average duration of 63.4 days. Five of them complained of pain in the shoulder and only one presented abduction limitation. Temporary palsy of the radial nerve was found in two patients and pseudoarthrosis in one of them, who was submitted to a new surgical intervention with plate and autologous bone graft, after 5 months. It was concluded that, although blocked intramedullary shafts presents a high incidence of the retrograde access port leading to fractures in its insertion site and the anterograde port causing pain in the shoulder.
Rotator Cuff; Humeral fractures; internal fixation
