Comparing the Knotless Tension Band and the Traditional Stainless Steel Wire Tension Band Fixation for Medial Malleolus Fractures: A Retrospective Clinical Study

Table 5

Fixation findings with value as determined using a chi-square of independence test for bivariate analysis as well as logistic regression analyses.

Fixation results	Total fixation (WTB + KTB)	WTB	KTB	value
Hardware
Hardware intact	100 (93.5%)	82 (92.1%)	18 (100%)	0.9608
Hardware removed	7 (6.5%)	7 (7.9%)	0 (0%)
Healed hardware intact
Yes (consolidated)	80 (74.8%)	65 (73.0%)	15 (83.3%)	0.3645
No (delayed healing > 12 weeks)	27 (25.2%)	24 (27.0%)	3 (16.7%)
Healed hardware removed	7 (6.5%)	7 (7.9%)	0 (0%)	0.9608
Nonunion hardware intact
Yes	20 (18.7%)	17 (19.1%)	3 (16.7%)	0.8092
No	87 (81.3%)	72 (80.9%)	15 (83.3%)
Nonunion hardware removed	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	—
Time to healing
Days	60.5 ± 32.1	59.5 ± 33.3	65.6 ± 25.6	0.6365
Pain—general
Yes	42 (39.6%)	31 (34.8%)	11 (61.1%)	0.0463
No	64 (59.8%)	57 (64.0%)	7 (38.9%)
Pain—tension band site
Yes	27 (25.2%)	22 (24.7%)	5 (27.8%)	0.8054
No	79 (73.8%)	66 (74.2%)	13 (72.2%)
Lost to follow-up
Yes—healed hardware intact	3 (2.8%)	2 (2.2%)	1 (5.6%)	0.6592
Yes—healed hardware removed	1 (0.9%)	1 (1.1%)	0 (0%)
No	103 (96.3%)	86 (96.6%)	17 (94.4%)