The use of Ender nails in fractures of the tibial shaft.

Between November 1979 and January 1983, we treated fifty-one severe fractures of the tibial shaft with multiple intramedullary Ender nails. Thirty-six fractures were treated within two weeks after injury. Forty-one fractures united in less than four months and eight, in four to eight months. Only two were not united after eight months. An anatomical reduction was maintained in all but three of the fractures, in which the tibia shortened. Two tibiae united with an angulation of 7 degrees and one with 6 degrees, as measured in two planes. There were two infections, both after an open fracture. It has been our experience that Ender nails provide excellent rotational stability, allow early full weight-bearing, and markedly decrease the duration of need for immobilization. Ender nailing was of value both for the acute management of complicated high-energy fractures of the tibial shaft with extensive soft-tissue damage and as a salvage procedure to maintain reduction of a fracture when other techniques had failed.