FEMORAL-NECK FRACTURE - A COMPLICATION OF FEMORAL NAILING

A fracture of the shaft of the femur in adults is common after rand tr affic accidents. Until recently if was not known that a fracture of th e femoral neck can occur while Fixing the femoral shaft fracture with all intramedullary nail. We report three patients in wham femoral neck Fractures occurred during femoral nailing. Fractures of the femoral n eck were detected by routine postoperative radiographs of the hip join t. All the three patients were treated non-operatively and the fractur es healed without complication. The cause of the femoral neck fracture seems to be forceful use of an awl in the wrong direction or multiple entry points in the trochanteric region which weaken the femoral neck ; subsequent hammering of the nail completes the fracture.