Intra-Osseous Venographic Findings in Femoral Neck Fractures Treated with Muscle-Pedicle Bone Graft: Comparative study of direct & indirect cephalic, and trochanteric I.O.V.

Rhee, Seung Koo; Moon, Myung Sang; Lee, Dong Sick

Abstract

Despite the technical improvements in Internal flxation of neck fracture were made in recent years, complications, such as non-union of the fracture and avascular necrosis of the femoral head, are not infrequent. Various operative techniques have been proposed to secure the reduced fracture fragment till union, and to restore or improve the circulation in the femoral head. One of them is muscle-pedicle bone graft to the fracture site of neck. It is very important if one can predict the vascularity of the femoral head prior to treatment and also the healing process of the neck fracture during treatment. In the past, there have been considerable investigations to achieve these goal, but no method universally has been accepted as reliable and practical. Among them, Intra-osseous venography (I.O.V.) and sclntimetry utilizing the isotope trace techniques were widely used in recent. Authors adopted a cephalic and trochanteric I.O.V. to observe the fracture healing and to predict viabillty of the femoral head, and also tried a new technique (Indirect cepallc I.O.V.) to perform both techniques of I.O.V. at the same time. With the ald of image Intensifler, a bone marrow needle Is inserted 1 inch below the greater trochanter of femur, and when the tip of the needle is reached 0.5 to 1.0 cm near to fracture line in the marrow cavity, about 25 cc of 75% Urograffin is Injected by speed of 1 cc per second with sereial X-rays taken at 1,3,5 and 15 minutes (trochanteric I.O.V.). Then already inserted puncture needle for trochanteric I.O.V. are more advanced through the fracture line of the neck into the femoral head. About 10 cc of 75% Urograffin Is Injected by speed of 1 cc per second with serial X-rays taken (Indirect cephallc I.O.V.). The merits of this indirect cophalic l.O.V. via trochanteric route is that it is also simple and Practical and there is no significant complication: such as septic arthritis of hlp & thrombophlebitis. Difficulties of inserting the needle through the trochanter and the neck into the head and occasional unwanted hip-arthrogram are listed as the main demerits of this technique. But these demerits can be minimized by the accurate image intensifier control. A positive trochanteric venography is one in which venous drainage is established across the fracture site with opaque contrast medium being spread out diffusely into the head, and eventually draining out into the surrounding soft tissue via draining velns. While positive cephalic venography via trochanteric route is one in which contrast medium is spread out diffusely in the head and trochanteric region via crossing veins. Hereby, we performed internal fixation and an autogenous muscle-bone pedicle graft composed of the quadratus femoris muscle in 4 cases of femoral neck fracture which are confirmed that there are head viability by using of the cephalic I.O.V.. Since then, we checked the both I.O.V. every 6 wks post-operatively. The results seemed to be good in regard to bony union in all 4 cases, and we have also found that cephalic and trochanteric I.O.V. are a useful diagnostic tool in hip fracture.