Failure after Operative Fixation of Fracture in Rigid Cerebral Palsy: Report of 2 Cases

Hwang, Chung Soo; Chung, Phil Hyun; Kang, Suk; Kim, Yong Min; Oh, Hyung Ho; Chae, Dong Ju; Lee, Seung Hoon

Abstract

In the management of fractures in patients with cererbral palsy, pre-existing contracture of joint and muscles, difficulty in maintenance of reduction partly because of involuntary motion of muscles are obstacles to the orthopaedic surgeons. Furthermore, disuse osteopenia in long term bed-ridden patients may be a Predisposing factor of refracture. Failures such as refracture were reported to occur 19 times more in cerebral palsy patients. Those failures usually result in malunion, which may be a cause of severely deformed extremities. Among various types of cerebral palsy, rigid type is rare and involuntary muscle contraction is rigid. Therefore, fractures in these patients may be more difficult to manage and be accompanied by more complications, such as refracture compared even to spastic type. We experienced fractures in two patients with rigid cerebral palsy. An 11 year-old boy(proximal femoral shaft fracture) and a 45 year-old man(humerus shaft fracture) were treated with open reduction and internal fixation using plate and screws. Initial fixation was thought to be enoughly stable, but within 3 weeks postoperatively, maintenance of reduction in both fractures failed eventually. Because of the rarity of cases and difficulty in maintenance of reduction, we report these two cases after reviewing of the literatures.