Complex elbow dislocations (ie, fracture-dislocations) are challenging injuries to treat and may result in significant patient morbidity. Chronic instability, posttraumatic arthrosis, and poor functional outcomes are frequent. Orthopaedic surgeons should strive to optimize elbow function through restoration of articular congruity and stability coupled with early rehabilitation. Although most of these injuries require surgical management, not all complex elbow dislocations are equivalent. Understanding elbow biomechanics and the injury mechanism provides valuable insight into the variations of pathology that may be observed. Identifying the particular fracture pattern, such as an axial loading, valgus posterolateral rotatory, or varus posteromedial rotatory injury mechanism, helps guide appropriate treatment.
With an aging population, treatment of interprosthetic femur fractures continues to pose a challenge to the orthopaedic surgeon. Retrograde intramedullary nailing combined with open reduction internal fixation using a tissue-preserving plating technique was used in our series of 9 patients with noncomminuted, distal femur fractures. No interfragmentary screws, cables, cerclage wires, or supplemental bone grafts of any type were used. Each patient initiated weight-bearing as tolerated after operative intervention. Every fracture healed at an average of 20 weeks (range 18-24 weeks). Use of a lateral locking plate combined with a retrograde intramedullary nailing enables immediate postoperative weight-bearing and stable fixation for patients with interprosthetic femur fractures.
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