Predicting the failure in distal femur fractures.

Abstract Introduction The incidence of nonunion after fractures of the distal femur is up to 6%. The distal femoral nonunion is a disabling disease that needs complex steps in his treatment. Aim of our study is to find predicting factors of non-unions. Materials and methods We retrospectively analyzed 116 cases of distal femoral fractures and 20 cases of non-unions. In both surgeries we analyzed: accuracy of reduction, stability of fixation, hardware used, residual medial or lateral bone defect, use of autologous or heterologous bone grafts. Results Malreduction, particularly axial defect, associated with unbalanced fixation, and a medial cortical bone defect of greater or lesser extent wer…