Treatment of Ipsilateral Fracture of the Femur and Tibia

Kim, Dong Heon; Shin, Kyu Cheol; Kim, Bo Hyeon

Abstract

The floating knee describes the fail knee joint segment resulting from fractures of the shafts or adjacent metaphyses of the ipsilateral femu. and tibia. It usually is associated with majo. soft tissue damages, open fractures, and other site injuries. The methods of treatment have been controversal. The key point of the treatment is focussed to the early restoration of the knee function. The floating knee in 24 patients were treated by surgical management from March 1988 to December 1994. The results were follows: 1. Average bone union time in femur was 20 weeks and in tibia was 18 weeks. Difference of the result of the treatment between the interlocking nail and Ender nail was not significant. 2. At the last follow up, the excellent and good results were 83% by Karlstrom and Olerud criteria, and the first group using the intrarneduallary nail achieved best result. 3. The most common complication was loss of the range of motion of the knee and loss of the range of motion of the knee was 0 to 45 degrees(the average 1 degrees).