Abstract: Introduction: The following study was conducted to examine the short term clinical and radiological results particularly early complications and healing rate of distal femur fracture treated with DF-LCP.
Methodology: The study was conducted in patients treated for distal femur fracture (type A, B & C – AO classification) at ADHICHUNCHANGIRI INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE, BG Nagar from the month of Nov 2013 to May 2016. Fifty distal femur fracture patients were taken into the study, all were fixed with DF-LCP with Bone grafting where the distal femur fractures were associated with extensive bone loss. Patients’ age ranged from 22 to 74 years with a mean of 44.
Results: The sample consisted of fifty patients with 32 males and 18 were female. The patients’ ages ranged from 22-74 years with a mean age of 44 years. The causes of fractures were motor vehicle accident in 33 patients and fall in 17 patients. There were no sports or industrial accidents. 33 fractures involved the right side and 17 involved the left. The average length of hospitalization was 15 days with a range of 10 to 20 days. The average number of days from injury to surgery was 5 days with a range of 2 to 08 days. The operative time ranged from 60 minutes to 180 minutes. Patients were followed up from 01 to 24 months. Functional outcome was rated as per NEER’S RATING SCORE, we got excellent results in 19 cases, good in 20, fair in 08 and poor in 03 patients.
Conclusion: The DF-LCP is a good implant to use for fractures of the distal femur. However, accurate positioning and fixation are required to produce satisfactory results. We recommend use of this implant in Type A, B, C and osteoporotic fractures. Our early results were encouraging but long term studies are needed to prove definitively acceptable outcomes so that the technique can become part in the armamentarium of the orthopedic trauma surgeon.
