Pediatric femur fractures, epidemiology and treatment

Background/Aim. Femur fractures in children most often occur as a consequence of traffic accidents, during play and sport activities, and due to different pathological states. Diagnosis is rather simple and it includes physical and radiographycal examination. Femur fractures treatment in children can be operative and unoperative, depending on several facts: age, localisation and type of fracture, joint injuries of soft tissues, the presence of other injuries (in polytrauma), economical and social aspects, ect. The aim of this study was to present epidemiological characteristics of pediatric femur fractures, that is in the stage of development, including a special analysis of the used treatment techniques, as well as the comparison of the obtained data with those from the literature. Methods. The evaluation included following parameters: age, gender, cause, localisation and type of femur fracture, applied treatment and hospitalisation duration. Results. Among the presented 143 patients with femur fracture, 109 were boys and 34 were girls (3.2 : 1 ratio; p = 0.0001). Average age for both genders was 8.6 years, and no difference between boys and girls were found for the age (p = 0.758). In total, the most common fracture was diaphyseal fracture of femur in 93 (65.03%) patients. The second was proximal fracture in 30 (20.98%) patients, and the last distal fracture of the femur in 20 (13.99%) patients (p = 0.0001). Three main causes of femur fracture can be distinguished: during play and sport activities in 67 (46.8%) children, in traffic accidents in 64 (44.8%) children, and pathological fractures in 12 (8.4%) children. Inoperative treatment was applied in 82 (57.3%) patients, and operative one in 61 (42.7%) patients. The most common tretament was traction, in 71 (49.6%) patients, followed by immobilization by hip spica cast mostly in young children. Intramedullar elastic nailing was applied in 16 (11.2%) cases, and intramedullar rigid nailing (Kuntscher) in 19 (13.3%) cases. Significantlly longer hospitalization period was detected after traction (21 days) comparing to other ways of treatment, mainly operative or hip spica cast (5 to 10 days). Conclusion. In young children the standard treatment was hip spica cast after traction. Intramedullar elastic nailing is a modern trend accepted as standard in our approach to femur fracture treatment in children.