Sikander Hayat, Waqar Alam, Syed Dil Bagh Ali Shah, Faaiz Ali Shah, Abdul Qayum.
Outcome Of Flexible Intramedullary Nails In Fracture Shaft Of Femur In Children.
J Med Sci Jan ;25(2):222-6.

Objective: To evaluate the functional outcome of fracture shaft of femur in children treated with flexible intramedullary nails. Material & Methods: This was a multicenter study which was conducted simultaneously at Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar, Saidu Teaching Hospital Swat and Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, Pakistan from March 2013 to July 2016. All patients meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. Two titanium elastic nails of identical diameter were passed retrograde from supracondylar region using traction table and image intensifier without opening the fracture site. All patients were followed up at 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 weeks for radiological and clinical evaluation. The results were evaluated using Flynn et al scoring criteria. Results: A total of 143 patients were included in the study. Males patients were 96(67.1%) while 47(32.8%) were females. Mean age of the patient was 8.4 years (range 5 to 14 years). Right side was involved in 86(60.14%) patients and left side in 57(39.9%) patients. Post operatively excellent results were reported in 133(93.01%), satisfactory in 9(0.063%) and poor results in 1(0.007%) patients according to Flynn et al scoring criteria. Superficial infection at nail insertion site was reported in 31(0.22%) patients and leg length discrepancy of 1.5 cm was observed in 18(0.13%) patients. No other major complication was observed. Conclusion: Flexible intramedullary nails gave excellent functional results in majority of paediatric femur shaft fractures. We recommend it as treatment of choice for fracture shaft of femur in children.

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