Functional Outcome of Shaft of Femur Fracture Fixation with Elastic Nail in Children Between 05 to 10 Years of Age

Abstract

Introduction: Femoral fractures are one of the most common issues in the childrens population. Between 6-16 age, there's no strong agreement as to the favored therapy. The therapy of femoral fractures in children has progressively changed towards a more operative tactic within the past two decades. This is because healthcare criteria demand more rapid mobilisation , early discharge and return to family with normal activity. Operative treatment results in short hospitalization and early mobilization, which has psychological, social, educational and economic advantages over conservative treatment. Aims & Objectives: The aim of our study is to determine the frequency of functional outcome with Flynn’s criteria in shaft of femur fracture stabilization with elastic nails in pediatric population between 5 to 10 years of age presenting in a tertiary care hospital. Place and Duration of Study: We conducted ‘Descriptive case series’, in the unit of Orthopedic Surgery, Services Hospital, Lahore from 01-09-2021 to 01-03-2022. Material & Methods: Sixty patients ranging from 5-10 yrs of age, fulfilling the selection criteria were enrolled after the informed consent in the study through the emergency of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Services Hospital, Lahore. Surgery for femoral fracture was performed in these patients under general anesthesia by a single surgical team with the assistance of the researcher. The children were followed up at 1, 2, 3, and 6 months. After 6 months, patients were evaluated according to Flynn’s criteria for femoral fracture outcomes with nailing and results were noted as excellent, satisfactory and poor. All the information was recorded in proforma. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version. 25.P-value ?0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Out of 60 patients, 23.3 % ( n=14) were in age group of 5-7 years and 76.7 %( n=46) were in age group of 8- 10years and mean age was 8.17±1.01years. 65.0 %( n=39) were male and 35.0 %( n=21) were females. Out of 60 patients, 21.7 % ( n=13) had road traffic accident, 63.3 %( n=38) had history of fall and 15.0 %( n=9) had miscellaneous cause of injury. The frequency of functional outcome according to flynn’s criteria was excellent in 51.7 %( n=31). Conclusion: We concluded that elastic nail is moderately simple to utilize and an compelling treatment for fractures of femoral shaft in legitimately chosen children by applying Flynn's criteria for functional outcome and can further be compared with other treatment modalities.