Skip to main content

Femur Fracture: Alternatives to Spica Casting for Fractures in Patients Under Age 6

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
  • 107 Accesses

Abstract

A 4-year-old male sustained a left femoral shaft fracture after falling from a chair. While pediatric femoral shaft fractures may be treated with spica casting or flexible nailing, the 2.5 cm femoral shortening along with the patient’s age suggested alternatives to spica casting be considered. Using retrograde techniques, the fracture was reduced and two 3-mm titanium flexible nails were placed in a retrograde fashion. The fracture subsequently healed and the hardware was removed 1 year after placement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References and Suggested Reading

  • Bopst L, Reinberg O, Lutz N (2007) Femur fracture in preschool children: experience with flexible intramedullary nailing in 72 children. J Pediatr Orthop 27(3):299–303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodbody CM, Flynn JM (2016) Flexible intramedullary nailing of femoral ahaft fractures. In: Flynn JM, Sankar WN, Wiesel SW (eds) Operative techniques in pediatric orthopaedic surgery, 2nd edn. Wolters Kluwer, Philadelphia, pp 197–201

    Google Scholar 

  • Herring JA (2008) Tachdjian’s pediatric orthopaedics from the Texas Scottish rite hospital for children, 4th edn. Saunders Elsevier, Philadelphia, pp 2641–2647

    Google Scholar 

  • Kocher MS et al (2009) Treatment of pediatric diaphyseal femur fractures. J Am Acad Orthop Surg 17(11):718–725

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shemshaki HR, Mousavi H, Salehi G, Eshaghi MA (2011) Titanium elastic nailing versus hip spica cast in treatment of femoral-shaft fractures in children. J Orthop Traumatol 3(1):45–48

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simanovsky N, Porat S, Simanovsky N, Eylon S (2006) Close reduction and intramedullary flexible titanium nails fixation of femoral shaft fractures in children under 5 years of age. J Pediatr Orthop B 15(4):293–297

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Song HR, Oh CW, Shin HD et al (2004) Treatment of femoral shaft fractures in young children: comparison between conservative treatment and retrograde flexible nailing. J Pediatr Orthop B 13:275–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel G. Hoernschemeyer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Hoernschemeyer, D.G., Robertson, M.E. (2019). Femur Fracture: Alternatives to Spica Casting for Fractures in Patients Under Age 6. In: Iobst, C., Frick, S. (eds) Pediatric Orthopedic Trauma Case Atlas. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28226-8_153-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28226-8_153-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28226-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28226-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine

Publish with us

Policies and ethics