Surgical outcome of upper extremity fractures in patients with Parkinson’s disease

Patients with Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease (PD) have an increased risk for fractures. Currently, many studies have reported inferior outcomes in PD patients after orthopedic procedures. However, there are very few studies assessing the outcome of upper extremity fractures (UEF) in PD patients. In this study, we reviewed 40 patients with PD that received surgical intervention for an UEF. We retrospectively reviewed patients with PD that received surgical fixation for an UEF at a tertiary trauma center. The primary objective was to determine the treatment failure rate after surgical fixation. The secondary outcomes include mode of failure, time to treatment failure, length of hospital stay, readmission rate, reoperation rate, and postoperative complications. A total of 40 patients with PD (42 fractures) underwent surgery. The most common fracture type was radius fracture (n = 19), followed by humerus fracture (n = 15), metacarpal/phalangeal fracture (n = 5), clavicle fracture (n = 2) and olecranon fracture (n = 1). The overall treatment failure rate was 40.5% (n = 17). The time to treatment failure was 1.24 ± 3.1 months and length of hospital stay was 6 ± 3.9 days, the readmission rate within 30 days was 14% (n = 6), and reoperation rate was 14% (n = 6). The complication rate was 16.6% (n = 7) and patients with humeral fractures appeared to have the longest hospital stays (6.6 days) and increased complication rates (13%, n = 2). Patients with PD have high treatment failure rates despite surgical fixation of an UEF. These patients often have a frail status with multiple comorbidities which may complicate their postoperative course. Level of evidence level 4 case series.