Abstract
Aims: The purpose of our study was to assess the decrease in hospital stay in children femur fractures after introducing Prevotñs Intramedulary Semißexible Titanium rod þxation (ESIN) in 1993. Methods: In our population there are 335 children treated for femur fracture at our institution in years 1990–2001. Their age ranged from 10 days to 14 years (average 6.3 years), 70.8% male, 29.2% female.
The majority of fractures were unilateral (47.7% right, 50.9% left) and 1.4% bilateral.
Up to 1993 femur fractures were treated mostly by traction immobilization (43.5%) and DC plates (34.8%). The average hospital stay was 26.6 days.
In 1993 we introduced and since then used ESIN to treat roughly 3/5 of all femur fractures (112 cases in 8 years). Children were usualy dissmissed 7–10 days after the operation and the rods removed after 4 months (average 118 days) with follow-up one week after removal. Results: The average hospital stay after ESIN was 10.0 days and 26.6 days following other treatment modalities. There is a statistically signiþcant diferrence (p < 0.001) between the two groups. Conclusions: After introduction of ESIN in 1993 there was a dramatic decrease in hospital stay.
Theses abstracts were prepared by Professor Dr. Frantz Langlais. Correspondence should be addressed to him at EFORT Central Office, Freihofstrasse 22, CH-8700 Küsnacht, Switzerland.
