Objective:

To establish whether complications in treatment, readmissions and reinterventions are related to psychological disturbances. To determine if the type, age and time of use are related to psychological aspects.

Material and methods:

Retrospective, observational and transversal study in patients treated with external fixator in the period from 2005 to 2010. We used clinical records, χ2 statistical tests and Student’s t-test with the IBM SPSS Statistics program, version 24.

Results:

Circular fixator: we observed a significant p of 0.024 in the relations between age and psychological alterations. Regarding the complications and the psychological alterations, we obtained a significant p 0.048. Monoplanar fixator: the difference was significant of 0.038 on the relation between readmissions and psychological alterations.

Discussion:

There are psychological disturbances in patients and families that may interfere with the treatment and complications. The literature showed that if there are alterations in the initial questionnaire, they will remain equal and generate increased aggressiveness; if there were no initial alterations, there will be no changes. We observed less psychological effects in older patients (13-16 years) and greater anxiety in patients in the medium range (10-12 years), as well as in patients with residual deformities.

Conclusions:

The psychological intervention is important in the pre-, trans- and postsurgical time. Patients of medium age, which corresponds to preteens, presented more psychological disturbances; therefore, it is recommended to avoid the use of external fixators in this age range.