Treatment of Gustilo grade III B supracondylar fractures of the femur with Ilizarov external fixation


Published online: Jun 27 2006

Pankaj Kumar, Girish K. Singh, Mahipal Singh, Suraj Bajraacharya

From the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal

Abstract

Twenty patients who had been treated with Ilizarov external fixation for a Gustilo grade IIIB supracondylar fracture of the femur were functionally assessed 12 to 52 months after treatment . Fourteen fractures were type C3 and 6 were type C2 according to the AO classification. Fractures were united at an average of 39 ± 9 weeks. There was a final knee extension deficit of 5° to 10° (12.2° ± 3.5°) and flexion reached 110° ± 10° in type C2 and 73° ± 36° in C3 supracondylar fractures. Forty percent of the supracondylar fractures had 4cm shortening and 40% had 1.5 cm. Pin-track infection occurred in 21%. Half of the C3 fracture cases had problems with pain on walking, needed support and had pain at rest, whereas no patients had difficulty getting out of a chair, going up and down stairs. However, all C2 type fractures had problems with all types of function.