[Late results of Küntscher medullary nailing of femoral and tibial fractures in the still growing skeleton].
This is a report about the clinical and roentgenological results of 11 patients who had single lower-leg fractures (average age at times of operation 15.6 years) average 4.8 years after medullary nailing, and about 11 patients with single femoral fractures (average age at times of operation 13.3 years) average 6.4 years after the operation. The Küntscher-nail had already been removed. Beside inquiring subjective statements we checked the possible influence of medullary nailing on the still growing skeleton. We did not find any severe faults in axis or rotation. Acceleration or retardation of bone growth were mainly found in younger patients (10-12 years of age at first operation), in distal localised fractures or in case of longer pre- or intraoperative bone reduction. We did not find essential differences in length of the legs in cases where the fractures had been nailed during the final period of bone growth (15-17 years).