title: Distal femoral replacement by custom-made prostheses. Clinical follow-up and survivorship analysis.
abstract: We report the long-term clinical follow-up and survivorship analysis of 40 distal femoral replacements performed between 1964 and 1980 for traumatic, locally aggressive and malignant conditions. Custom-made prostheses with fully-constrained knee joints were used to replace a mean of 42% of the length of the femur. Survivorship analysis showed a cumulative success rate of 80% at eight years, with no subsequent deterioration at 18 years. Clinical assessment revealed 78% excellent or good results. Failure was due to infection in three cases, and in two to fracture of a now-outmoded femoral stem.
mesh_terms: D001186:Artificial Limbs; D005266:Femoral Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D005269:Femur / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000293:injuries / Q000601:surgery*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D007720:Knee Prosthesis; D007866:Leg; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D011859:Radiography