Evaluation of The Treatment of Open Intercondylar Fracture Distal Femur by Transosseous Osteosynthesis Technique with Ilizarov External Fixator

Objectives: Treatment of Distal femoral fractures cannot be done following simple set of rules and when it is an open fracture the treatment is more difficult. Several methods were studied by different authors both at home and abroad, but none were conclusive. Methods: This prospective study was done between January 2011 to December 2012, 15 patients of the open intercondylar fractures of Distal femur were treated by transosseous osteosynthesis technique by Ilizarov External Fixator in NITOR (National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic rehabilitation), Dhaka. 2 of the patients were not available for final follow up after removal of the fixator frame. So ultimately the final result based on the results of 13 Cases. Minimum 6 months follow up was done from the date of injury. No patient below age 16, no type IIIB or IIIC fractures and no patients having less than 6 months follow up were included in the study. Patients with severe injuries (Head injury, Abdomen and chest injury) were excluded from the study. Patients with medical illness such as Diabetes Mellitus, Peripheral Vascular diseases were not included in the study. Results: 12 male and 01 female patient between 16 and 56 years were studied. Most common age group in this series were 16-30 year age group (53.85%) and average age of the patients was 31.15 years. Most of the patients were male and road traffic accident was the leading cause of injury (92.31%). Right side involved in (69.23%) most of the cases. All patients were C3 type of fractures and G-II and G-IIIA types were same (38.46%). Most of the patients (53.85%) were operated within 1-2 weeks of admission. Average duration of hospital stay was 22 days ranging from 10 day to 45 days. Most of the patient had soft tissue healing by granulation tissue formation. Others were treated by primary closure, Delayed primary closure or secondary closure. Various complications were observed among them pintract infection, wire breakage, wire loosening, stiffness of joints, angulations and rotations, deep infection of the tissue, leg length discrepancy was observed in this study. According to the criteria of Neer et al, 1967 final results of the treatment were analyzed. Acceptable result was found in 61.54% of cases (Excellent 7.69% and good 53.85%). Results of the rest of 38.46% cases were not acceptable (Fair 23.08% and poor 15.38%). The result is similar with others done for open fractures of distal femur by Ilizarov External Fixator or other methods of fixation. Conclusion: So it can be concluded that transosseous osteosynthesis technique is a satisfactory method for treating open intercondylar fracture of distal femur as a primary and definite mode of treatment.