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Arch Orthop Trauma Surg · Apr 2004
Treatment of nonunions with irretrievable broken nail pieces in the distal fragment.
- Alexander Lerner, Dory Herer, Avi Chezar, Shai Freiman, and Haim Stein.
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery "A", Rambam Medical Center, POB 9602, Haifa, Israel. alex_lerner@yahoo.com
- Arch Orthop Trauma Surg. 2004 Apr 1; 124 (3): 151-3.
IntroductionWe present our experience in the treatment of nonunited fractures of long bones in the presence of a retained fragment of the broken intramedullary nail.Materials And MethodOf 287 long bone fractures treated by intramedullary fixation, we recalled 5 patients with broken intramedullary nails. In two patients the distal fragments of broken nails were not extracted and refixation was performed by an Ilizarov ring fixation with the broken piece left in situ.ResultsThe patients ambulated with full weight bearing immediately following surgery. We achieved good results in both patients with fracture union times between 16 and 22 weeks. No complication was observed.ConclusionsRing fixation using thin wires or half pins inserted beside fragments of the broken nail provides a simple and minimally traumatic method of treatment in patients when encountering difficulties extracting a retained fragment of broken intramedullary nails.
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