English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Trochanteric fractures are commonly encountered in elderly patients, and the outcome may be bad, if not intervened early. Dynamic hip screw (DHS) fixation is the most common treatment in stable trochanteric fracture. In unstable trochanteric fractures, there is high incidence of failure in view of excessive collapse seen with dynamic hip screw. In order to limit the collapse, we have done a modification on dynamic hip screw implant. Here we have assessed fracture healing, collapse and implant failure, in unstable trochanteric fractures (Evan’s unstable fractures) treated by modified dynamic hip screw fixation. METHODS The present retrospective case record analysis was conducted among 31 patients with unstable trochanteric fracture classified according to Evan’s classification who were operated with modified DHS in a tertiary care hospital. The details about fracture healing, collapse of fracture fragments, implant failure were assessed in a structured checklist through the case record analysis. RESULTS Out of 31 patients in this study, 29 patients showed fracture healing (93.5 %) with or without minimal collapse and 2 patients had non-union (6.5 %) at the end of 5 months follow up. Ultimately, all fractures united at the end of 1-year follow-up. Out of 31 patients in this study, at first month follow-up, 26 patients showed no implant failure (83.9 %), 5 patient had implant migration not breaching cortex (16.1 %), at third month follow-up, out of 5 patients who had implant migration, two patients had implant migration not breaching cortex (6.4 %), 3 patients had implant migration breaching cortex (11.0 %), at fifth month follow-up, two patients had implant migration not breaching cortex (6.4 %), 3 patients who had implant migration breaching cortex underwent revision surgery (11.0 %). CONCLUSIONS Modified dynamic hip screw has shown improved results as compared to normal dynamic hip screw in treating unstable trochanteric fracture, which limits the collapse at fracture site. KEYWORDS Unstable Trochanteric Fractures, Collapse, Modified Dynamic Hip Screw