Comparison between headless cannulated screws and partially threaded screws in femoral neck fracture treatment: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract The choices of the treatments for femoral neck fractures (FNF) remain controversial. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prognoses of the variable pitch fully threaded headless cannulated screws (HCS) in the fixation of femoral neck fractures and to compare them with those of partially threaded cannulated screws (PCS). Between 1st January 2012 and 31st December 2016, there were 89 patients with the main diagnose of FNF who accepted the treatment of closed reduction cannulated screw fixation in Peking University People’s Hospital. 34 cases of PCS and 23 cases of HCS met the criterion. The characteristics, prognoses and the imaging changes of all cases were described and the differences between the two groups were compared. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 23.0 (SPSS Inc., USA). Mann–Whitney U test, Analysis of Variance and Chi-square test were used. Statistical significance was defined as P value (two sided) less than 0.05. There was no significant difference in the general characteristics, fracture classifications and reduction quality between the two groups. HCS group had a significant lower angle decrease rate (30.4% vs. 58.8%, P = 0.035), femoral neck shortening rate (26.1% vs. 52.9%, P = 0.044) and screw back-sliding rate (21.7% vs. 50.0%, P = 0.032), but a higher screw cut-out rate (21.7% vs. 0.0%, P = 0.008). In non-displacement fracture subgroup, HCS had significant higher Harris Score (92 vs. 90, P = 0.048). Compared with PCS, HCS had a lower screw back-sliding rate, femoral shortening rate, angle decrease rate and similar function score, but would result in more screw cut-outs in displaced FNF. As a conclusion, HCS should not be used in displaced FNF due to its higher screw cut-out rate, and its potential advantage in non-displaced FNF needs to be further proved. Further qualified investigations with a larger scale of patients and longer follow-up are needed in the future.