The clavicular fractures occur frequently and are treated conservatively, usually. But things are trending toward operative treatment in displaced cases due to nonunion.

From June 1984 to November 1993, 153 patients(156 cases) among 297 patients with the clavicular fractures were analysed at Department of orthopedic surgery, Korea university hospital.

The brief summary of the observations are as follows:

1. among 156 cases, the right side were 72 cases, the left side were 84 cases and both were 3 patients. The most common cause of injury was the the traffic accident and the most frequent site of the fracture was middle one-third.

2. According to the Allmans classification, the fractures were classified in three groups. Group Iwere 113 cases, Group II were 28 cases and Croup III were 15 cases and the average age of each groups were individually 28.7 yeara,35.4 years and 41.4 years respectively.

3. The average duration of the radiological union of the conservative treatment were 9.8 weeks in Group I ,9.7 weeks in Group II and 10.3 weeks in Group III. And of the operative treatment were 10.1 weeks in Group I , 10.1 weeks in Group II and 9.9 weeks in Group III Any difference between the conservative and the operative treatment was not observed.

4. The complications were nonunion in 2 cases, delayed union in 2 cases and refracture in 1 case after conservative treatment, and nonunion in 2 cases, delayed union in 1 case, refracture in 1 case and superficial wound infection in 1 case after operative treatment.