Saad Ilyas, Subhan Shahid, Sohail Razzaq, Jamil Ahmed, Ashfaq Ahmed, Saeed Ahmed, Rizwan Akram, Amer Aziz.
Mean duration of union in femoral shaft fracture in children treated with titanium elastic intra-medullary nailing.
Pak J Surg Jan ;35(3):257-61.

Introduction: Elastic intramedullary nail was introduced for femoral fractures by Nancy group in 1979. It has gained popularity in the last two decades. It serves as a weight sharing device. The advantages of elastic intramedullary nails as a fixation device are well known and include closed insertion of the device, with preservation of the fracture hematoma and minimal risk of fracture site infection. Objectives: To determine the mean duration of union in femoral shaft fracture in children treated with elastic intra-medullary nailing. Settings: Department of Orthopedics Study design: Case series study. Study duration: 15th March 2017 to 14th September 2017 Materials & Methods: A total of 70 diagnosed cases of femoral shaft fracture presenting within 7 days of the injury and age 6-11 year of both genders were included. Patients with segmental femoral shaft fractures, osteogenesis imperfecta and congenital pseudoarthrosis of the femur were excluded. The titanium elastic nails (TEN) system was used in all patients according to the departmental protocols. All the patients were followed up in OPD on 2 weeks interval till union is achieved. The duration of union was recorded. Results: Mean age was 8.31 +- 1.69 years. Majority of the females i.e. 37(52.86%) were between 6 to 8 years of age. Out of these 70 infants, 44(62.86%) were male and 26(37.14%) were females with male to female ratio of 1.7:1. Mean duration of union in femoral shaft fracture in children treated with elastic intra-medullary nailing was 10.98 +- 0.602 weeks. Conclusion: This study concluded that elastic intra-medullary nailing should be preferred in the treatment of femoral shaft fracture in children in order to achieve good outcome and reduce union time.

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