Sacroiliac (SI) Screws: The Effect of SI Screw Removal on Patient-Reported Pain and Functional Outcomes

Pain Clinical Trial

— SIS  

Official title:

The Effect of Sacroiliac (SI) Screw Removal on Patient-Reported Pain and Functional Outcomes After Open or Closed Reduction and Internal Fixation of Pelvic Fractures

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02652611
• Other study ID #: HP-00063838
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 2015
• Est. completion date: December 2020

Study information

• Verified date: March 2022
• Source: University of Maryland, Baltimore
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Chronic pain following surgical stabilization of a pelvic fracture is very prominent and can have a major affect on a patient's quality of life. Persistent pain after radiographic evidence of fracture union commonly leads to implant removal. But, the routine removal of orthopaedic fixation devices after fracture healing remains an issue of debate.

Description:

Many surgeons remember patients whose intractable, hardly explainable local symptoms and complaints of pain resolved quickly after a hardware-removal procedure. However, implant removal requires a second surgical procedure in scarred tissue, poses a risk for nerve damage, infection and re-fractures, and is not a guarantee of pain relief.

Rates of implant removal vary based on anatomic location and implant selection. Many studies have introduced and assessed the outcomes of hardware removal in the ankle, tibia and femur. But, there is currently no controlled trial that assesses the benefits and harms of sacroiliac (SI) screw removal in pelvic fracture patients.

Reports in literature are not consistent concerning the incidence of painful hardware and the outcome and pain relief after hardware removal. There is conflicting evidence that removing hardware decreases acute pain in ankle, tibia, and femur fractures but there is a need to explore the effect of SI screw removal in pelvic fracture patients. The investigators propose to prospectively randomize patients with a pelvic fracture requiring the use of SI screws for stabilization to removal versus non-removal of SI screws and track which group has less pain and need for narcotic pain medications.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 101
• Est. completion date: December 2020
• Est. primary completion date: October 2020
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 80 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• The patient is between 18 and 80 years of age, inclusive

• The patient has a pelvic fracture that required SI screw stabilization

• The patient has reached skeletal maturity

• The patient's pelvic fracture was the result of trauma (includes polytraumatized patients)

• The patient is English-speaking

• The patient's pelvic fracture was initially treated at Shock Trauma

• The patient is currently experiencing pain associated with his/her pelvic fracture

• The patient's surgeon agrees to randomization (the patient is amendable to either SI screw removal or non-screw removal treatment)

• The patient is able to be randomized between 4 and 8 months post-SI screw stabilization surgery at an orthopaedic follow-up appointment

Exclusion Criteria:

• The patient is non-ambulatory due to an associated spinal cord injury

• The patient was non-ambulatory pre-injury

• The patient is currently pregnant

• The patient is enrolled in another study that does not allow co-enrollment

• The patient is likely to have severe problems with maintaining follow-up

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Pain
• Pelvis
• Sacroiliac Joint

Intervention

Procedure:
• SI Screw Removal Surgery

• Non-screw removal treatment (non-operative management)

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Maryland, Shock Trauma Center	Baltimore	Maryland

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Maryland, Baltimore

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (12)

Brown OL, Dirschl DR, Obremskey WT. Incidence of hardware-related pain and its effect on functional outcomes after open reduction and internal fixation of ankle fractures. J Orthop Trauma. 2001 May;15(4):271-4. — View Citation

Busam ML, Esther RJ, Obremskey WT. Hardware removal: indications and expectations. J Am Acad Orthop Surg. 2006 Feb;14(2):113-20. Review. — View Citation

Court-Brown CM, Gustilo T, Shaw AD. Knee pain after intramedullary tibial nailing: its incidence, etiology, and outcome. J Orthop Trauma. 1997 Feb-Mar;11(2):103-5. — View Citation

Dodenhoff RM, Dainton JN, Hutchins PM. Proximal thigh pain after femoral nailing. Causes and treatment. J Bone Joint Surg Br. 1997 Sep;79(5):738-41. — View Citation

Gerbershagen HJ, Dagtekin O, Isenberg J, Martens N, Ozgür E, Krep H, Sabatowski R, Petzke F. Chronic pain and disability after pelvic and acetabular fractures--assessment with the Mainz Pain Staging System. J Trauma. 2010 Jul;69(1):128-36. doi: 10.1097/TA.0b013e3181bbd703. — View Citation

Hanson B, van der Werken C, Stengel D. Surgeons' beliefs and perceptions about removal of orthopaedic implants. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2008 May 24;9:73. doi: 10.1186/1471-2474-9-73. — View Citation

Jacobsen S, Honnens de Lichtenberg M, Jensen CM, Tørholm C. Removal of internal fixation--the effect on patients' complaints: a study of 66 cases of removal of internal fixation after malleolar fractures. Foot Ankle Int. 1994 Apr;15(4):170-1. — View Citation

Keating JF, Orfaly R, O'Brien PJ. Knee pain after tibial nailing. J Orthop Trauma. 1997 Jan;11(1):10-3. — View Citation

Meyhoff CS, Thomsen CH, Rasmussen LS, Nielsen PR. High incidence of chronic pain following surgery for pelvic fracture. Clin J Pain. 2006 Feb;22(2):167-72. — View Citation

Pohlemann T, Tscherne H, Baumgärtel F, Egbers HJ, Euler E, Maurer F, Fell M, Mayr E, Quirini WW, Schlickewei W, Weinberg A. [Pelvic fractures: epidemiology, therapy and long-term outcome. Overview of the multicenter study of the Pelvis Study Group]. Unfallchirurg. 1996 Mar;99(3):160-7. German. — View Citation

Toms AD, Morgan-Jones RL, Spencer-Jones R. Intramedullary femoral nailing: removing the nail improves subjective outcome. Injury. 2002 Apr;33(3):247-9. — View Citation

Williams AA, Witten DM, Duester R, Chou LB. The benefits of implant removal from the foot and ankle. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2012 Jul 18;94(14):1316-20. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.J.01756. — View Citation

* Note: There are 12 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Pain as measured by using the arithmetic mean of the four pain visual analog scale severity items on the patient-reported Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) assessment		Up to 24 months post initial SI screw stabilization
Secondary	Narcotic use as measured by the patient's medical record during follow-up clinic appointments		Up to 24 months post initial SI screw stabilization
Secondary	Work productivity and impairment as measured by the WPAI:SHP questionnaire		Up to 24 months post initial SI screw stabilization
Secondary	Health related quality of life as measured by the SF-12 questionnaire		Up to 24 months post initial SI screw stabilization
Secondary	Pelvic specific function as measured by the Majeed Pelvic Score questionnaire		Up to 24 months post initial SI screw stabilization
Secondary	General function as measured by the SMFA questionnaire		Up to 24 months post initial SI screw stabilization
Secondary	Surgical-related complications as measured by the patient's medical record during follow-up clinic appointments		Up to 24 months post initial SI screw stabilization