Periprosthetic femoral fracture treated with shape-memory sawtooth-arm embra cing fixator / 中华骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To i nv estigate the clinical effect of shape-memory sawtooth-arm em bracing fixator in the management of periprosthetic femoral fracture.Methods Since1994, 21cases of periprosthet-ic femoral fractures had been treated in7hospitals with the shape-memory sawtooth-arm embracing fixator designed and developed b y the Ninth Peoples Hospital,Shanghai Second Medical University(SSMU ).Of the21cases,12were males and9were females,aging from42to83years old. Eighteen of the series ex peri-enced periprosthetic fracture at2weeks to10y ears after joint replacement the fractures were found as oblique,spi ral or comminuted with the fracture lines located between the lesser trochanter and a p oint 5cm distal to the end of prosthetic stem.The other three were revision c ases,in which2cases with osteoporosis had intraoperative spiral fracture and1 case had long segmental osteotomy for removal of the prostheses.One of the 21patients had Z-shaped femoral osteotomy,while the other20cases were clas sified into Jo hannson typeⅠfrac ture in4cases,typeⅡ9cases and typeⅢ7case s.All of them were complete fracture with dis-placement.In practice,the arm s of fixator were expanded firstly by immersing into the ice water to make the tempera ture of the device decrease to4~7℃.After reduction of the fracture ,the body of the fixator was placed on the tensile side of the femur,and th e temperature of the arms was raised with hot saline.With its shape memory ef fect,the sawtooth-arms began to close up and grasped the fracture fragments ti ghtly.Results Surgical process in all of the cases was smoothly donethe frac tures were stable after the fixation,and no ex-ternal fixation was required po stoperatively,except four cases underwent skin traction of the affected lim b for 2weeks.All the patients were able to walk with two crutches at2to4we eks after the operation.The post-operative follow-up lasted from1to7years, and no fracture re-displacement was found.The results of frac-ture healing were good while the functional recovery to the pre-operative level was achieved in the all se ries.Conclusion For periprosthetic femoral fracture,shape memo ry sawtooth-arm embracing fixator is a re liable device being implanted easily and offering stable fixation;it should be the treatment method of the first choice.