Reduction with Plates

Abstract

Ideally, an implant should contribute to the reduction of a fracture as well as stabilizing it. This is one of the advantages of a reamed intramedullary nail. In the simple fractures the intramedullary nail fills the canal and produces stability by an interference fit in the region of the isthmus of the femur. The nail partially fills the canal, and as long as rotation is correct as the nail passes through the fracture, reduction in the coronal and sagittal planes is forced to occur. With contemporary prebent nails shaped like the femur, the reduction is then anatomic. A straight plate, when applied to a straight bone from the proper side of a displacement, may also interfere with this displacement and cause the bone to reduce. When the plate is properly contoured to the area of the bone being stabilized, this reduction too is quite anatomic.