Stable Fixation and Immediate Weight-Bearing after Combined Retrograde Intramedullary Nailing and Open Reduction Internal Fixation of Noncomminuted Distal Interprosthetic Femur Fractures

With an aging population, treatment of interprosthetic femur fractures continues to pose a challenge to the orthopaedic surgeon. Retrograde intramedullary nailing combined with open reduction internal fixation using a tissue-preserving plating technique was used in our series of 9 patients with noncomminuted, distal femur fractures. No interfragmentary screws, cables, cerclage wires, or supplemental bone grafts of any type were used. Each patient initiated weight-bearing as tolerated after operative intervention. Every fracture healed at an average of 20 weeks (range 18-24 weeks). Use of a lateral locking plate combined with a retrograde intramedullary nailing enables immediate postoperative weight-bearing and stable fixation for patients with interprosthetic femur fractures.