Management of a failed femoral plate in an obese patient: A case report

ABSTRACT

Femoral nailing is the overall “gold standard” in treating femoral shaft fractures. However, plate osteosynthesis at the femoral shaft is still being done in selected patients. We report a case of right femoral implant failure after a broad limited contact dynamic compression plate (LC-DCP) insertion and its subsequent management using our minimally invasive technique. Our technique is biologically compliant as well as cosmetically friendly. We converted a loadbearing implant into a load-sharing implant in view that obesity is a significant predictive factor of non-union in a femoral fracture treated with locking plate. The patient subsequently recovered well with no complication.