Abstract
The constant increase in number of hip revisions during last years has lead to a consequent increase even in fracturative events of the femoral shaft. The treatment of these kind of fractures have to be considered like the one for « pathologic fractures », due to periprosthetic or pericemental osteolysis that occurs in prosthesis’ mobilization, reducing drastically the bone resistance.
We use to divide these fractures primarily in two groups:
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Pathologic Fractures, occurring before revision surgery.
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Fractures occurring during revision surgery.
Surgical solutions are different, according to fracture’s level and severity. TYPE 1 Fracture limited to trochanteric region TYPE 2 Fracture not exceeding stem length TYPE 3 Fracture line from shaft to distal part of the stem TYPE 4 Fracture line completely under femoral stem TYPE 5 Plurifragmentary fracture
For 1st group, surgical solution is to stabilize trochanteric region with dynamic wiring. For 2nd group, plate with both screws and dynamic wires are indicated. The fractures of last three groups are successfully treated with cementless long stem prosthesese, eventually associated with plate. In summary, the modern techniques of revision surgery associated with systems of cement removal (ultra-sounds and re-cementing procedures) have permitted to decrease the number of periprosthetic fractures. We think that the use of last generation models of cementless modular stem for revision, associated with dynamometric wiring, always allows brilliantly solving this complex surgical problem.
Correspondence should be addressed to Richard Komistek, PhD, International Society for Technology in Arthroplasty, PO Box 6564, Auburn, CA 95604, USA. E-mail: ista@pacbell.net
