LAUSR

OBJECTIVE To give painless and stable fingertips to patients by means of vertical figure-of-eight tension sutures. METHODS The longitudinal study was carried out from May to October 2019 at the Dow University of Health Science, Civil Hospital, Karachi, and comprised individuals of either gender aged 10-60 years. All patients were surgically managed and were assessed clinically and with radiological films for finger stability and fracture healing during 3-month follow-up. Data was collected using a proforma and was analysed using SPSS 21. RESULTS Of the 74 patients, 58(78.4%) were males and 16(21.6%) were females. The overall mean age was 28.9±13.23 years. Of the total, 65(88%) were operated under local anaesthesia, while 9(12%) were given general anaesthesia. All 74(100%) patients on early visits had pain and discomfort, 5(6.8%) had infection and none had ischaemic insult. CONCLUSIONS Using vertical figure-of-eight tension sutures was found to be a simple technique which helped in proper healing of distal phalanx fractures and a non-deformed fingertip.