title: Femoral shaft fractures in children: elastic stable intramedullary nailing in 31 cases.
abstract: We report our experience with elastic stable intramedullary titanium nailing (ESIN) of femoral shaft fractures in children. From 1998 to 2001, we treated 31 children (20 boys), median age 6 (4-11) years, with ESIN for 29 closed and 2 grade I open femoral shaft fractures. We reviewed 30 children clinically after median 1.5 (1-3) years. Their median hospital stay was 6 (2-20) days. All fractures were radiographically united at a median of 7 (5-9) weeks. The nails were removed in 29 children after a median of 22 (6-38) weeks postoperatively. At follow-up, we found a leg-length discrepancy up to 1 cm in 6 children and 10 degrees of internal rotational deformity in 1 child. No angular deformity had occurred. Elastic stable intramedullary nailing seems to be a safe method for the treatment of femoral shaft fractures in children between 4 and 11 years of age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Odense University Hospital, Denmark. sh_houshian@yahoo.dk
authors.forename: Shirzad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Houshian
authors.forename: Charlotte Buch
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Gøthgen
authors.forename: Niels Wisbech
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.forename: Søren
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harving
mesh_terms: D001858:Bone Nails; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005264:Femoral Fractures / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male