Clinical results of childhood diaphyseal fractures of femur and tibia treated with titanium elastic nail

The literature of school-age and adolescent age group, although the controversial treatment of the fractures of the femur and tibia, titanium elastic nails in the treatment of choice in this age group finds itself in the first place. İn this study, application of flexible titanium nails investigated the effect of time bony union and angular controlBetween 2008-2010 in our clinic because of the femur and tibia fracture patients treated with titanium elastic nails were retrospectively investigated. Sixteen patients with 10 femoral and 6 tibial fractures, including 16 long-bone fractures were studied. The mean age of the patients was 9.18 (range 4-14 years) years and the mean follow-up was 14.75 (range 6-32 months) months. Patients charts radiographs were retrospectively reviewed to gather the clinical data. Outcomes were classified as excellent, satisfactory or poor according to the Flynn classification for flexible nail fixation.All patients achieved complete healing at a mean of 8.43 (range 6-14 weeks) weeks. At final follow-up, mean angulation was 1.68 (range 0-5 degrees) degrees in the coronal plane and 3.12 (range 0-9 degrees) degrees in sagittal plane. None of the patients has suffered septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, delayed union. One patient soft tissue irritation and one patient painful bursa was observed. According to the Flynn classification, we had 12 excellent, 4 satisfactory, and no poor results.Titanium elastic nail should be preferred in children over the age of four lower extremity long bone fractures, because of the advantages postoperative care is easy to, early initiation of joint movements, early mobilization, shorter hospitalization with less disruption of patient and family life, rapid healing, sagittal and coronal plane angle control to provide reliable.