To investigate the effects of drainage tube placement after fracture internal fixation.

A prospective cohort study was conducted of the 235 patients who were to undergo open reduction and internal fixation for tibia fracture, distal radial fracture or ankle joint fracture at Department of Orthopaedic Trauma, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital from March to August, 2016. Of them, 123 were assigned into an experimental group who were subjected to adequate hemostasis after releasing the tourniquet without drainage following surgery while 112 into a control group who were subjected to conventional hemostasis without relaxing the tourniquet and placement of drainage tubes. The 2 groups were compared in terms of post-operative hospital stay, wound condition, body temperature 3 days postoperatively, counts of hemoglobins, white blood cells and neutrophils, and postoperative visual analogue scale (VAS).

High fever was not observed in all the patients postoperatively. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups in post-operative hospital stay[(3.3±1.6) d versus (3.7±1.7) d], wound reddening, wound swelling, hemoglobins, white blood cells, neutrophils, or VAS scores postoperatively (P>0.05).

Drainage tube placement is not routinely necessary after internal fixation of simple fractures if surgical invasion is limited and hemostasis is adequate after intraoperative release of the tourniquet.

Fractures, bone; Fracture fixation, internal; Postoperative period; Drainage