Treatment of complicated pediatric femoral fractures with titanium elastic nail

Nonunion and major complications are not very common in pediatric fractures. No commonly accepted methods exist for the treatment of these fractures. In this study, treatment of complicated pediatric femoral fractures with titanium elastic nails was evaluated. Five girls and four boys with nine femoral fractures constituted the group. The mean age of the patients was 8.7 (5-11) years and the mean follow-up was 46.6 (24-84) months. Five of them had implant failure and nonunion, two of them had loss of position in the external fixator, one of them had incomplete union and loss of position in the external fixator and the other had femoral fracture in the lengthening segment of the femur and had loss of position and incomplete union in the spica cast. All the patients were treated with a closed or open reduction of the fracture, debridement if treated with open method and fixation of the fracture with titanium elastic nails. Complete union was achieved in all the patients within the 6-9 months. No neurovascular injury or infection was reported in the group. The result of the treatment showed that fixation of complicated pediatric femoral fractures with intramedullary titanium elastic nails is a good option.