Abstract
Distal femoral fractures should be treated without disturbing knee or lower extremity function. Therefore, it is important to consider all treatment options according to the patient’s age, fracture type, level of adjacent soft tissue injuries, and risk of complications. For many years, nonsurgical treatment was the gold standard. More recently, internal fixation has produced improved clinical outcomes. Another benefit of surgical management is the possibility of early functional rehabilitation training.
A locking compression plate is applicable for both young and older patients to achieve joint surface reduction and articular cartilage preservation. On the other hand, the retrograde intramedullary nail would be the primary choice for middle-aged and elderly people as this method is less invasive and can achieve axial stability, thereby allowing for early partial weight-bearing.
Although arthroscopic treatments are difficult for these distal femoral fractures, arthroscopy-assisted reduction and internal fixation should be applied especially for Hoffa fractures.
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Sasashige, Y., Fujimoto, E., Adachi, N., Ochi, M. (2019). The Distal Femur Fractures. In: Doral, M., Karlsson, J., Nyland, J., Benedetto, K. (eds) Intraarticular Fractures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97602-0_28
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