A TECHNIQUE TO OBTAIN CORRECT ROTATIONAL ALIGNMENT DURING CLOSED LOCKED INTRAMEDULLARY NAILING OF THE FEMUR

Closed intramedullary nailing is a successful method of treating adult femoral shaft fractures. In comminuted or segmental fractures, this o peration is associated with an incidence of rotational malalignment an d malunion. After locked nailing, this can only be corrected by furthe r operation. A simple method of judging and obtaining rotational align ment in such cases intra-operatively is described. A comparison of two groups of patients with such fractures, one using this technique and the other using conventional methods of judging alignment, revealed st atistically significant improvement in rotational alignment (p=0.016). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.