Long proximal femoral nail in ipsilateral fractures proximal femur and shaft of femur

BACKGROUND: Ipsilateral fractures of the proximal femur and femoral shaft are extremely uncommon injuries which occur in young adults who sustain a high energy trauma. A variety of management modalities have been tried to treat this complex fracture pattern ranging from conservative approach to recently introduced reconstruction nails. All these approaches have their own difficulties. We studied the outcome of long proximal femoral nail (LPFN) in the management of concomitant ipsilateral fracture of the proximal femur and femoral shaft. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analysed the prospective data of 36 consecutive patients who had sustained a high energy trauma (30 closed fractures and 6 open shaft fractures) who had concomitant ipsilateral fractures of the femoral shaft associated with proximal femur fractures treated with LPFN between December 2005 and December 2011. The mean age was 39 years (range 28-64 years). Twenty nine males and seven females were enrolled for this study. RESULTS: The patients were followed up at three, six, twelve, and eighteen months. The mean healing time for the neck fractures was 4.8 months and for the shaft fractures was 6.2 months. The greater trochanter was splintered and widened in two cases which eventually consolidated. Two patients had superficial infection, two patients had lateral migration of the screws with coxa vara which was due to severe osteoporosis detected during the followup. We had two cases of nonunion of shaft fracture and one case of nonunion of neck fracture. Two cases of avascular necrosis of femoral head were detected after 2 years of followup. No cases of implant failure were noted. Limb shortening of less than 2 cms was noted in four of our patients. The functional assessment system of Friedman and Wyman was used for evaluating the results. In our series 59.9% (n = 23) were rated as good, 30.6% (n = 11) as fair, and 5.5% (n = 2) as poor. CONCLUSION: Long PFN is a reliable option for concomitant ipsilateral diaphyseal and proximal femur fractures.