Comparison of treatment of unstable intertrochanteric fractures by intramedullary and extramedullary implants

Abstract

Background
To achieve union and restore the normal biomechanics of the hip region after unstable trochanteric fractures, surgical intervention is necessary. There are two options for internal fixation: extramedullary and intramedullary. Dynamic hip screw (DHS) as extramedullary fixation was and is still widely used to surgically treat intertrochanteric fractures. However, it sometimes fails to give good results. Intramedullary fixation methods include gamma nail placement, which is considered by some surgeons to be a better choice as it can avoid complications occurring with extramedullary fixation. Our study aimed to conclude which is better to be used to manage unstable intertrochanteric fractures by either DHS or gamma nail regarding the operation requirements (hospital stay, need for blood transfusion, wound complications, and soft tissue damage) and later on evaluate which is better regarding the fracture healing radiologically and functionally.


Patients and methods
This is a retrospective study of 52 patients with recent unstable intertrochanteric fractures between January 2020 and December 2020. A total of 40 patients continued the study till the last follow-up, where 20 of them were fixed by intramedullary gamma nails as a group I and the other 20 patients were fixed by extramedullary DHS as a group II. The mean age for the group I was 50.05 (20–83) years and the mean age for group II was 60.5 (22–91) years. A total of 14 patients from group I were males and 12 from group II were males. All fractures were classified according to Evan’s classification to be unstable (Evan’s types III, IV, and V).


Results
Overall, 19 (95%) patients of group I achieved full union and one patient had nonunion with nail breakage. No patients in group I had malunion. A total of 17 (85%) patients of group II achieved good union with one patient having nonunion with implant failure. Moreover, two (10%) patients of group II had femoral shaft medialization and varus malunion.


Conclusion
This study supported the previous series in the literature, which proved that unstable intertrochanteric fractures can be fixed by intramedullary gamma nails or extramedullary DHS but intramedullary fixation gives better results than extramedullary fixation.