Trochanteric fractures treated with a proximal femoral nail.

We followed prospectively 295 patients with trochanteric fractures treated with the proximal femoral nail. The average age of the patients was 80 years and three out of four were female. The most frequent fracture type was A2 (59%). Clinical and radiographic controls were performed at 1, 3 and 6 months. There were technical complications during the operation in 12% of the cases, complications in the immediate postoperative period in 27% and late complications were detected in 4% of patients. Previous walking ability was recovered by 71%. The surgical technique is not complex, the number of complications recorded was acceptable and the overall results obtained are comparable with other fracture systems.