Femur shaft fracture treatment in school-aged children using titanium elastic nails

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Titanium elas?c nails are used to treat femur sha? fractures in paediatric patients. This method is minimally invasive and does not cause epiphyseal injury or impairment of femoral head blood supply. OBJECTIVES: The objec?ve is to evaluate the results of opera?ve treatment of femur sha? fractures in the age group between 6 and 16 years with ?tanium elas?c nailing system (TENS), using Flynn’s criteria. METHODS: This prospec?ve clinical study was conducted during the period from November 2018 to November 2020. Thirty cases were treated with mean follow up of 12 months. RESULTS: The final outcome was excellent in 21 cases, sa?sfactory in 6 cases and there were 3 poor outcome cases. Eight pa?ents had limb length discrepancy varying from 0.5-2cm. Five pa?ents had skin irrita?on, 3 pa?ents had angular mal-union and 1 pa?ent had persistent pain with skin breakdown. None of the pa?ent had infec?on, rota?onal mal-union, delayed or non union. CONCLUSION: Titanium elas?c nail fixa?on is a simple, easy and effec?ve method for management of paediatric femur fracture between 6 and 16 years age. With this method of treatment, careful considera?on to pa?ent’s age and body weight should be given to prevent the poor result.