title: Proximal third femoral shaft fractures in children: prevention of angular deformities using bilateral Thomas splints.
abstract: This is a prospective study to look at the outcome of unilateral proximal third femoral shaft fractures in children treated with a bilateral Thomas splint in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia between the period of January 1996 and June 1998. Eighteen children aged between 2 years and 12 years old with unilateral proximal third fractures of the femoral shaft were treated using a bilateral Thomas splint. Angular deformities were measured using a goniometer metric scale before and after Thomas splints. The percentage of varus tilt corrected ranged from 17% to 72% with an average correction of 29% from the initial deformity and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The percentage of posterior tilt corrected ranged from 19% to 60% with the average correction of 20% from the initial deformity. The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). From this study, we conclude that bilateral Thomas splints can give a better correction of angular deformity for proximal third femoral shaft fractures in children below twelve years of age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatology, Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Kamal
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Razak
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lim
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005264:Femoral Fractures / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007592:Joint Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013165:Splints; D014143:Traction