Abstract: 5Background and Objective: Femoral shaft fractures account for 1.6% of all paediatric bony injuries. Angulation, malrotation and shortening are not always corrected effectively by conservative methods. Fixation of femur fractures in children & adolescents by flexible intramedullary nailing is becoming widely accepted because of the lower chance of iatrogenic infection and prohibitive cost of in hospital traction and Spica cast care.
The objective of our prospective study was to study the various aspects of Managing diaphyseal fractures of femur in children aged between 5-15 years by using Titanium Elastic Nailing System& Ender nailing. Subjective and objective study of clinical parameters like pain, comfort to the patients, early mobilization, operative technique, radiological evaluation for union, stages of weight bearing till complete recovery and any associated complications by using the above mentioned methods.
Method: Children and adolescents between the age group of 5-15 years with femoral shaft fractures who were admitted Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences meeting the inclusion criteria were selected.
All patients underwent titanium elastic nailing & Enders nailing fixation for the femur fracture. Patients were followed up for a period of 6 months at 4,8,12 and 24 weeks after surgery. 50 such cases were studied.
Result: The outcome is excellent in 38 (76%) cases, satisfactory in 12 (24%) cases and there were no cases of poor outcome.
Conclusion: Flexible intramedullary nail leads to rapid fracture union by preservation of fracture hematoma and limited soft tissue exposure. It also helps in preventing damage to the physis.
Our study confers all the advantages which the previous studies have shown at various institutes and is fairly a simple, reliable technique with a shorter learning curve imparting lot of advantages over other intramedullary techniques or other methods followed for management of pediatric diaphyseal femur fractures.
