Study of Clinical Results and Functional Outcome of Patients With Distal Femur Fracture Treated With Dual Plating.

ABSTRACT

Introduction Distal femur fracture has been routinely fixed with a single lateral locking plate. This method of fixation in intra-articular distal femur fractures has proved to give a higher outcome of varus collapse as well as higher rates of mal-union due to inadequate fixation of the medial aspect of the distal femur. To address this drawback of single lateral plating, the use of medial assisted plating (MAP) has been introduced recently, which was proposed to give better stability to the medial fragments. This Is a prospective case series of 50 patients with distal femur fractures treated with dual plating. Materials and methods Fifty cases of patients with distal femur fractures were treated with dual plating between August 2020 and September 2022. Patients were followed up postoperatively till the third month, when patients were assessed clinically and radiologically. Range of motion of the knee, postoperative fracture displacement, limb shortening, and signs of union and infection were checked. Neer's scoring and Kolmet's scoring were used to grade the outcome for the patients.  Results The mean age of the patients was 39. Only 12% of the cases were open fractures. Eighty-four percent of the cases did not have fixed flexion deformity (FFD) and only 4% had FFD of 15 degrees; 72% of the cases achieved flexion of the knee beyond 120 degrees. Eighty-four percent of patients had normal walking ability by the 12th week postoperatively; 16% of the cases had a postoperative displacement of more than 1.6 cm, with the maximum being 2.5 cm.  Conclusion From the study, we have concluded that outcomes were better for fractures of distal femur when treated with dual fixation, probably due to superior fixation and earlier postoperative mobilization.