AUGMENTATIVE PLATE FIXATION FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF FEMORAL NONUNION WITH BROKEN INTERLOCKING NAIL

Five patients with femoral nonunion and a broken interlocking nail wer e treated with the augmentative plating procedure. This group included two male and three female patients whose average age was 25 years (ra nge, 21-35 years), All of the injuries resulted from traffic accidents and were closed fractures. Four of the injuries were initially manage d with a Grosse-Kempf interlocking nailing system, and one case was ma naged with an AO interlocking nailing system. The broken interlocking nail was left in place in situ, and an augmentative plate fixation was applied to the fracture site to provide a rigid fixation, Simultaneou s bone grafting was performed in three of the patients to repair the b ony defect, All of these patients walked bearing full weight on the ex tremity without aching at the fracture site within 3 months, and all o f these five fractures obtained a bony union within an average of 5.4 months after this treatment. From our experience, we have found this m ethod to be a useful treatment for the nonunion of femoral shaft fract ure with a broken interlocking nail.