Midshaft Femur Fracture Treated with Interlocking Nail; Our Experience

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the outcome of midshaft femur fracture treated with interlocking nail. Methods: This prospective study conducted at the department of orthopaedic surgery at multiple tertiary care hospitals of Sindh from January 2015 to December 2017. A total number of 63 patients were recruited in this study. The inclusion criteria was all adult patients of either sex with midshaft femur fracture, multiple long bones fractures, polytrauma cases. The patients with pathological fractures, cases with neuromuscular disorder, open contaminated fractures, and metabolic bone disorder were excluded from this study. All the data was collected on a proforma designed for this study and the results were statistically analyzed. Results: Sixty three patients with midshati. femur fracture were included in the study with mean age as 36.25 years. Most of the patients were in age group 18-30 years (n=26, 41.3%) followed by 21 patients in 31-50 years (33.3%) and 16 patients in 51-60 years (25.4%), Forty seven were males (75%) and sixteen were females (25%). Majority of the patients had right side affected (56%) whereas 44% of the patients had left side affected. Forty three percent of the patients had tro,nsverse fracture followed by oblique and comminuted (21%) and spiral (16%). Patients with open fracture, segmental fracture, bilateral femur fractures and pathological fractures were excluded from the study. Due to high velocity trauma these injuries were associated with clavicle fracture in 5 patients, ipsi lateral patella in 3 and tibial plateau fracture in 4 patients. All patients were treated with interlocking nail_ Fifty patients fracture united within 4 to 6 months 6 patients fracture united in 6 to 12 months, fractures not united in 4 patients and treated with other methods and three patients loss the follow up after 2 months. Knee range of motion was 90 degree in 7 patients and 90-120 degree motion range in 53 patients. Superficial infection at operative site occur in 3 patients that treated with antibiotics and recovered uneventful. Conclusion: The interlocking nailing in mid shaft femur fractures was ideal method of fixation with excellent to good results in terms of union and early weight bearing.