The incidence of non-union following unreamed intramedullary nailing of femoral shaft XXXX .

@entity1 @entity174 @entity542 @entity260 @entity281 @entity1230
INTRODUCTION: Stabilisation of @entity174 with an intramedullary nail is a widespread technique in the treatment of femoral shaft @entity174 in adults. To ream or not to ream is still debated. The primary objective of this study was to determine the incidence of non-union following unreamed intramedullary stabilisation of femoral @entity174 . Secondary objectives were intra- and @entity260 and implant failure. METHODS: Between March 1995 and June 2005, 125 @entity1 with 129 traumatic femoral shaft @entity174 were treated with as unreamed femoral nail. From this retrospective single centre study, 18 @entity1 were excluded due to insufficient follow up data, including 1 @entity1 who died within 2 days after severe @entity542 . Sixty-six @entity1 had suffered @entity1230 . 21 @entity174 were open. According to the AO classification, there were 54 type A, 42 type B, and 14 type C @entity174 . Dynamic proximal locking was performed in 44 cases (36 type A and 8 type B @entity174 ). RESULTS: Non-union occurred in two @entity1 (1.9%; one type B and one type C @entity174 ). Intra-operative complications were seen in three @entity1 (2.8%). @entity260 occurred in 29 @entity1 (27%). Local superficial @entity281 occurred in two @entity1 (1.9%), there were no cases of @entity281 . Implant failure occurred in three @entity1 (2.8%): nail breakage was seen in two @entity1 . CONCLUSION: In this study, the incidence of non-union following unreamed intramedullary nailing is low (1.9%) and comparable with the best results of reamed nailing in the literature.
