Osteosynthesis of humeral diaphyseal fractures by long intramedullary nailing is a widespread practice. Distal interlocking is a delicate and uncertain step in the procedure, and the free-hand method is adopted by most surgeons. We evaluated the accuracy of a magnetic field-guided system for distal interlocking of long intramedullary nailed humeral diaphyseal fractures.

The field magnetic method to interlock distal screws procured satisfying success rates at first attempt in each hole.

Single center, retrospective, descriptive and continuous.

We used the Sureshot® Distal Targeting System (DTS) and the Trigen® (Smith & Nephew) nail. All patients who presented to our center for osteosynthesis of a fracture of the humeral diaphysis by long intramedullary nailing between April 1, 2016 and June 30, 2018 were retrospectively included.

The analyses included 32 of the 34 patients who presented during this period (mean age, 64 years). There were 51 attempts to install distal interlocking screws. The screws were interlocked successfully in 40 cases (78.4%), and there were 11 failures (21.6%). There was an average of 29 fluoroscopic views and an average cumulative dose area product of 36.90 cGcm².

We found a lower success rate than that found in the literature for the accuracy of Sureshot® DTS in long humeral nailing. We found also a lower success rate than for tibial and femoral centromedullary nailing with this system. Our study showed a success rate of only 78.4% at the first attempt for distal interlocking of Trigen® humeral long nails.

IV; retrospective study without control group.