RESUMEN
UNLABELLED: Non-union is a well recognized complication of femoral neck fractures. The decision whether to attempt fracture fixation or to resort to hip replacement is particularly difficult in patients in the borderline age group in whom complex attempts at gaining union may fail and later present a difficult revision. On the other hand the patient may be young enough that arthroplasty best be avoided . Besides, presence of ipsilateral femoral shaft fracture with delayed union in addition to the femoral neck non-union will pose major problems at operation. We share our experience in treating a femoral neck fracture non-union with ipsilateral femoral shaft delayed union in the shaft and in the distal femur in a fifty years old patient. The fracture was treated with an angle blade plate and supracondylar nail supplemented with a free vascularised fibular bone grafting and autologous cancellous graft. There was radiological union at fourth month. At sixth months, the patient was free of pain and able to walk without support. Thus, we would like to suggest that vascularised fibula bone grafting with supracondylar nailing is a viable option for this pattern of fracture. KEY WORDS: Vascularized fibular bone graft, neck of femur, femoral shaft fracture, non-union.
RESUMEN
UNLABELLED: There are reported cases of cortical reaction over the tension side of the normal femoral shafts in patients on long term treatment with alendronate, leading to subsequent femoral shaft fractures. We performed a retrospective review of patients with low-energy femoral shaft fracture on alendronate, admitted to our institution during the period 2004 to May 2009. The presence of radiological changes of cortical hypertrophy with or without Looser's zone over the tension side of the femoral bone (normal limb) was determined and correlated with clinical symptoms. Thirteen patients were identified. Average duration of alendronate use was 6.5 ± 3.3 years (ranges, two to 10 years). These radiological changes were noted in four patients. Average duration of alendronate usage in these four patients was 6.5 ± 2.4 years (ranges, 5 to10 years). Prodromal thigh pain was present in a patient, who had cortical hypertrophy with the presence of a Looser's zone traversing the cortex on the femoral shaft. One patient had Looser's zone limited at the lateral hypertrophied cortex without prodromal pain. The interobserver kappa coefficient was 0.96. A femoral radiograph should be performed in all patients who are on long-term alendronate therapy who present with thigh pain. We propose a new grading system based on our observation of the radiological features in these four cases. This new grading of the radiological spectrum of femoral shaft cortical pathology has the potential to stratify the risk of low energy femoral fracture for patients treated with long-term alendronate therapy. KEY WORDS: Femur, Cortical Hypertrophy, Looser Zone, Alendronate.