Zeitschrift für Trauma und Behandlung

Expandable Retrograde Nail for Femoral Fracture above a Total Knee Replacement

Abstract

Mehmet Turker, Ozgur Cetik and Serhat Durusoy

Periprosthetic fractures after total knee arthroplasty occur as a result of low energy trauma usually compounding some surgical pitfalls and patient related factors [1,2]. Patient and technique related predisposing factors are osteopenia, osteolysis, malalignment, anterior femoral notching, poor flexion (stiff knee), corticosteroid use, rheumatoid arthritis, myasthenia gravis and cerebral palsy [1,3]. The reported periprosthetic fracture incidence ranges from 0.3 to 2.5 percent [1,4]. But unfortunately an increase of periprosthetic fracture incidence would be inevitable due to increased life expectancy and osteoporotic patient numbers [3,5-7].