Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Dec;49(12):2295-2301.
doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2018.10.019. Epub 2018 Oct 18.

Periprosthetic femoral nonunions treated with internal fixation and bone grafting

Jonne Prins  1 , Johanna C E Donders  1 , David L Helfet  2 , David S Wellman  3 , Craig E Klinger  3 , Mariya Redko  4 , Peter Kloen  1
Affiliations

Periprosthetic femoral nonunions treated with internal fixation and bone grafting

Jonne Prins et al. Injury. 2018 Dec.

Abstract

Introduction: Periprosthetic femoral nonunions (PPFN) have a reported incidence of 3-9%. Literature on PPFN management is scarce. The study aim was to review combined results of two academic teaching hospitals using comparable PPFN treatment strategies.

Materials and methods: A retrospective review was conducted of all patients treated for a PPFN between February 2005 and December 2016. All patients treated with internal fixation for a PPFN with complete clinical and radiological follow-up until healing were included. Nineteen patients were identified (mean age 71.2 years, range 49-87). Treatment consisted of failed hardware removal, debridement, reduction, and rigid internal fixation with or without bone graft. For revision PPFN surgery, use of dual-plating and bone graft augmentation was common.

Results: Eighteen of 19 patients (94.7%) progressed to osseous union. One patient was converted to a total femoral prosthesis. No patients were lost to follow-up. All were ambulatory at last follow-up and mean follow-up was 39.8 months. Fourteen patients (73.7%) united after our index nonunion surgery at mean 9.8 months. Five patients (26.3%) required revision surgery after our index nonunion treatment and in 4 of these cases union was achieved at mean 18.0 months.

Conclusions: Our results suggest debridement, revision of fixation and liberal use of bone grafting can lead to reliable healing in the majority of PPFNs. For those PPFNs that do not heal following initial treatment, good healing potential persists with an additional procedure.

Level of evidence: Prognostic Level III.

Keywords: Bone graft; Nonunions; Open reduction and internal fixation; Periprosthetic fractures.

PubMed Disclaimer