A study on complications of surgical stabilization of supracondylar fracture femur

Abstract

Modern plating techniques result in the maintenance of vascularity around the fracture site and relatively longer plates are used than in previous decades. In general, 4 to 5 screws should be chosen in each of the distal femur and proximal femur. A plate length should be chosen that allows for an approximately similar number of empty plate holes in the proximal femur. After obtaining approval from institutional ethics committee, 30 skeletally mature patients with distal fracture femur fractures, satisfying the inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled. Informed and written consent was taken from the enrolled patients. Data was obtained through structured questionnaires regarding the trauma, detailed clinical examination, relevant investigations, and entered in the case record form (CRF). The complications we encountered include superficial infection in 2 patients, plate lift in one patient and varus malalignments in three patients. Superficial infections were subsided by intravenous antibiotics. Out of three virus malalignments two were of type C3 fracture and one type C2. Factors contributing to malalignments were severe comminution and improper reduction.