title: Supracondylar fractures of the femur above total knee arthroplasties with cortical allograft struts.
abstract: Ten supracondylar fractures of the femur above a total knee arthroplasty were treated with open reduction and internal fixation using a metal plate and cortical allograft struts. Failure with nonunion of previous operative treatments was seen in 5 patients. The other 5 patients had either severe osteopenia or comminution of the fracture above the knee prosthesis. At an average of 38 months' follow-up, all the fractures healed with an average union time of 17.6 weeks. The postoperative knee alignment averaged 5.1 degrees valgus. Infection occurred in 1 patient, which resulted in a poor outcome. The remaining 9 patients were functioning well at the most recent follow-up examination. The use of cortical allograft struts combined with a compression plate provided satisfactory results for supracondylar fractures above knee prostheses with severe osteopenia or loss of bone stock after initial failure of internal fixation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China. lee415@adm.cgmh.org.tw
authors.forename: Jun-Wen
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ching-Jen
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001860:Bone Plates; D016025:Bone Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005264:Femoral Fractures / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D005593:Fracture Fixation, Internal / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007720:Knee Prosthesis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011859:Radiography; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome