Comparative study of outcome of retrograde intramedullary nailing and locking compression plating of distal femoral fractures in adults

Abstract

Fractures in the elderly are often challenging due to osteoporotic bone and co-morbidities and long term disability can occur. Surgery is the standard mode of treatment and hence a quick surgical treatment for early weight bearing and mobilization is required in order to prevent long term complications due to prolonged bed rest. All patients were documented prospectively, complete demographic details and clinical history was obtained. Clinical and radiographic evaluation was done in all the patients. Informed consent was taken and all patients were treated with DFLCP and retrograde nailing randomly. Duration of hospitalization was documented and follow up was done for 2 years. In this study, fracture union time was12-24 weeks with among the patients of the DLFP group with 75 percent have union and was 12-24weeks among the patients of the retrograde nailing group with union occurring in 80 percent of patients respectively. Significant results were obtained while comparing the mean fracture union time among the patients of the two study groups. In our study, follow up was done up to 2 years with 60% of patients followed up to 15 months in both the groups.