B Mahender Reddy¹, V Ram Reddy², C K Reddy³

¹Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, Alluri Sitaramaraju Institute of Medical Sciences, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, ²Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences, Karimnagar,Telangana, ³Professor, Department of Anatomy, Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences, Karimnagar, Telangana, India.

Address for correspondence: Dr B Mahender Reddy, Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, Alluri Sitaramaraju Institute of Medical Sciences, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh.

Email: drmahender_reddy@yahoo.com

Background: Management of paediatric femoral fractures has gradually evolved in the past two decades towards operative approach because of a desire for more rapid recovery and reintegration of the patients.

Material and Methods: 20 children (16 boys-4 girls) aged 6-16 years with femoral diaphyseal fractures were treated with Titanium elastic nailing (TENS). These fractures were Proximal 3rd (n-2), middle 3rd (n-15) and lower 3rd (n-3). All patients underwent surgery as early as possible with an average 4 days from the day of admission. The results were evaluated using Flynn’s scoring criteria.

Results: Excellent results were seen in 14 patients, good in 4 patients and fair in 2 patients. All the fractures healed with average time to union of 9.1 weeks. Mean duration of hospital stay was 9.2 days. Full weight bearing was achieved in all cases in the mean time of 8.2 weeks.

Conclusion: We believe Elastic stable intramedullary nails (ESIN) is an excellent technique in surgical management of diaphyseal fractures of femur in children aged 6-16 years. It is safe less invasive with fewer complications and early return of children to school.

Keywords :Fracture femur, elastic stable intramedullary nails, Titanium elastic nailing