Treatments of distal femur fractures with intramedullary nails and locking plates: the difference of callus formation

Objective: Through comparison of clinical effect in distal femur fractures stabilized with locking plates and intramedullary nails to test the difference of callus formation between intramedullary nails and locking plates.Methods: 156 distal femur fractures were reviewed to extract cases treated individually with retrograde IM nails(n=12),and treated with locking plates(n=12).Periosteal callus was measured on lateral and antero-posterior radiographs taken at 12 weeks after injury using validated software to objectively extract the size of peripheral callus from digital radiographs.Results: The nail group had 2.4 times more callus area per location(233±280 mm2) than the plate group(95±109 mm2,P=0.028).Conclusion: Significantly less periosteal callus formed in fractures stabilized with locking plates than with IM nails.