Clinical Results of Acetabular Fracture Fixation Using a Focal Kocher-Langenbeck Approach without a Specialty Traction Table

OBJECTIVES: To report the clinical result of a series of patients who underwent acetabular fracture fixation using a Kocher-Langenbeck approach without a specialty traction table. DESIGN: Retrospective case series. SETTING: Level-1 Trauma Center. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: All patients who sustained posterior wall or posterior wall associated acetabular fractures that were treated operatively with a Kocher-Langenbeck approach over a 5-year period. INTERVENTION: Surgical fixation of acetabular fractures using a flat, radiolucent table. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: Outcomes included reduction quality and complications such as infection, heterotopic ossification, loss of reduction or fixation, medical complications, and neurologic injury. RESULTS: We identified 172 patients. No articular malreductions of greater than 2 mm were noted on post-operative CT scans. There were 13 surgical complications observed (8.1%). There was one death in our cohort (0.6%) and three patients had non-fatal pulmonary emboli (1.9%). There were no nerve injuries observed. There were 6 acute infections (3.1%) requiring surgical intervention. Three patients had symptomatic heterotopic bone that required excision (1.9%). Four patients (2.5%) required eventual total hip arthroplasty CONCLUSION:: Overall, we report on the largest cohort in the literature undergoing a prone Kocher-Langenbeck without a specialty table for acetabular fracture fixation. We found that limited extremity prepping and draping for a prone Kocher-Langenbeck on a flat, radiolucent table did not result in an increased rate of post-operative neurological complications or malreductions of acetabular fractures. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV.