ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the effect of extracorporeal shock waves (ESWs) combined with expanding bone marrow autografts in treating nonunion of femoral shaft fractures with interlocking intramedullary nails.Methods Thirty patients with femoral shaft fractures which had not united were divided into an ESW group,an expanding bone marrow group,and a combined treatment group using a table of random numbers.Each group had 10 cases.In the ESW group,no expanding bone marrow was employed in fixing the intramedullary nails and ESW therapy was begun at day 14 after the operation.In the expanding bone marrow group,bone marrow was grafted around the broken ends of fractured bones.In the combined treatment group patients underwent both treatments.The conditions of the callus and the fracture lines in the 3 groups were separately evaluated using X-rays at the 4th,8th,12th and 16th week after the operation.Results At week 4,the average callus and fracture line scores in the combined treatment and expanding bone marrow groups were significantly better than those in the ESW group.At the 8th week after the operation,the average callus and fracture line scores in the combined treatment group were significantly higher than in the ESW group and expanding bone marrow groups.Later,the callus and fracture scores in all 3 groups continued to rise significantly.At the 12th and 16th week the scores in the combined treatment group were significantly better than those in the ESW group and the expanding bone marrow group,while the scores in the ESW group were significantly better than those in the expanding bone marrow group.The cure rates in the ESW,bone marrow and combined treatment groups were 60％,50％ and 100％ respectively at week 16.Conclusions The combined treatment was significantly more effective than either treatment alone.There was no significant difference in effectiveness between the ESW and expanding bone marrow treatments.ESW combined with expanding bone marrow autograft is an effective way to promote bone knitting in the treatment of nonunion of femoral shaft fractures with interlocking intramedullary nails.