Removal of irretrievable segmentally broken femur nail by an innovative technique – Case Report.

ABSTRACT

Extraction of broken implant is a challenging task for orthopaedic surgeons. Many times it requires innovative ideas or some unusual methods, all of which has not been listed in literature. We hereby report such a case of 40-year-old male who presented with severe limping and history of previously treated right femur fracture. The radiographs showed an intramedullary nail which was segmentally broken. Femur nail was broken at the non-united fracture and below the fracture at the level of distal interlocking screw. We successfully removed a broken implant by using such one innovative -close retrograde method. The segments of broken nail were removed through knee arthrotomy without opening the fracture site. Non-union was treated by exchange nailing without bone grafting and patient recovered well on follow up. To our best of knowledge very few cases of extraction of segmentally fractured nail have been reported in literature until now.