Plate osteosynthesis of single metacarpal fracture: WALANT technique is a cost-effective approach to reduce postoperative pain and discomfort in contrast to general anesthesia and wrist block

Table 1 Demographic data and clinical result

	GA group (n = 24)	WB group (n = 28)	WALANT group (n = 11)	P value
Age	36.67(17–62)	41.86(18–76)	41.55(19–87)	0.445*
Sex, M:F	15:9	21:7	2:9	0.606⁺
ER to OR time, days	2.29(0–8)	1.39(0–8)	2.0(0–9)	0.302*
Anesthesia time, min	32.83(15–60)	19.46(9–45)	21.36(18–25)	< 0.001*
GA v.s. WB				< 0.001
GA v.s. WALANT				0.003
Surgical time, min	44.67(15–119)	43.68(20–110)	50.72(15–98)	0.315*
Discomfort of vomiting and nausea	20 (38.1%)	0	0	0.017⁺
Postop day 1 VAS	2.92(1–5)	2.71(1–5)	2.18(1–3)	0.056*
Full ROM recovery	21(87.5%)	27(96.42%)	11(100%)	0.214⁺

GA general anesthesia, WB wrist block, WALANT wide-awake local anesthesia no tourniquet, VAS visual analog scale, ROM range of motion
*Fisher’s exact test
⁺Kruskal–Wallis test

ISSN: 1471-2482