Repair of Distal Femoral Periprosthetic Nonunion: Linked Nail Plate Construct.

INTRODUCTION

Periprosthetic fracture nonunions represent a rare problem in orthopaedic practice, although their incidence has increased with the increased frequency of joint replacement surgery. This video demonstrates the use of a linked nail-plate construct to repair a distal femoral periprosthetic fracture nonunion.

METHODS

The patient is a 93-year-old woman who is 1-year status-post a left distal femoral periprosthetic fracture with known delayed healing. She presents with a low energy trauma and hardware failure. The patient was indicated for operative fixation using a linked nail-plate construct given the patient's previous hardware failure, advanced age, and poor bone quality.

RESULTS

This video demonstrates the linked nail-plate technique for the repair of a distal femoral periprosthetic fracture nonunion. Anatomical reduction and stable fixation with bone graft was performed with excellent results. There were no intraoperative or postoperative complications and no issues related to metallurgy.

CONCLUSIONS

In this video, we present the case of an atrophic distal femoral periprosthetic nonunion treated with a linked nail-plate construct with autologous bone graft. Although femoral periprosthetic fracture nonunions are a rare occurrence, they can be successfully treated with operative intervention aimed at compression plating with supplemental bone grafting.