Does the long gamma nail improve walking ability and manage complications in patients with proximal femoral fractures?
The long gamma nail allows for a closed surgical technique and immediate full weight bearing, providing a promising method for managing complex proximal femoral fractures.
Treatment of proximal femoral fractures is difficult. A retrospective analysis of 92 patients treated with a custom-made extended gamma nail with a mean follow up of 4 months is presented. The early results of this new method are promising. The indications for the use of the long gamma nail were intertrochanteric fractures with extension to the subtrochanteric region, imminent and pathologic fractures of the intertrochanteric and subtrochanteric region, mostly in elderly patients, proximal femoral fractures, and combination injuries in multiple trauma patients and delayed unions. In 67 cases the patients were primarily treated with a long Gamma nail. In 25 cases the nail was used after the failure of initial treatment. Complications occurred in 32 patients; however, 88 patients were able to walk at the end of the study. The advantage of this new method is that with a closed surgical technique full weight bearing directly after the operation is achieved. The long Gamma nail provides a procedure by which most complex fractures in the proximal femur can be managed.
Stapert et al. (1993) studied this question.