Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Background: It is quite rare as well as severe to seen commonly distal femur fractures. 0.4% and 3% is the estimated frequency of all fractures and femoral fractures. The gender ratio has changed and today there is a majority of women, and the population is also increasingly older; mean 61 years old at fracture and over 65 in more than half the cases. Hence; we planned this study to examine patients with distal femoral fractures which were treated with locked plates, to assess the various risk factors responsible for complications. Materials & Methods: The present study was carried out in department of orthopaedics and included 400 patients who were treated with open reduction internal fixation (OIF) using a lateral distal femoral locked plate construction. Prospective institutional databases were used to gather information on the fixation which included locked screws in the distal fragment and non-locked, locked, or a combination of locked and non-locked screws in the proximal fragment of the bone. Only the patients with unilateral fracture were included for the present study. All the patients were divided into three predominant groups for the sake of convenience of description, namely; the entire cohort group, group with closed fractures, and group with open fractures. Primary outcome measures included reoperation to promote union, deep infection, and construction failure. These dependent variables were used in statistical analyses. For the identification of the risk factors, the 3 separate groups (entire cohort, closed fractures, and open fractures) were used for each of these populations.  Results: A little of 20% of the total fractures required re-operation. Diabetes and open fractures were found to be the independent risk factors for reoperation to promote union and deep infection. For implant failure, risk factors included open fracture, smoking and shorter plate length. Conclusion: It is more advantageous to use relatively long constructs for the treatment of supracondylar femur fractures
Key Words: Femur, Fracture, Locked plates