Study to determine the Results of Femoral Shaft Fractures among Children managed with Immediate Hip Spica Cast

Abstract

This prospective descriptive study aims to assess the importance of the immediate hip spica in a fracture of the femoral shaft in children at the Orthopedic Department of Liaqat University of Medica and Health science Jamshoro, Pakistan, for a one-year duration from June 2019 to June 2020. All children 1 to 5 years of age with femoral fractures who were admitted to the Orthopedic department within seven days of injury were included in the study. A total of 35 children, 24 (68.6%) boys and 11 (31.42%) girls, with a mean age of 3.8 years, were treated with an immediate hip spica cast. Their ages ranged from 1 to 5 years. The time of immobilization of the Spica cast ranged from 4 to 6 weeks (mean 5.4 weeks). In the second week, seven (22.85%) children had spica wetting, and breakage and reinforcement of spica was done, and 5 (14.28%) children had a spica wedging, and casting was applied to fix the angulation. No extension or hypertrophy was observed in the fractured limb. We concluded that immediate hip spica casting is a safe, inexpensive and definitive treatment of femoral shaft fractures in children aged 1-5 years.