Closed flexible intramedullary nailing of the femoral shaft fractures in children.

We treated 34 femoral shaft fractures in 32 children with elastic intramedullary nailing using titanium rods. The 24 boys and 8 girls ranged from 6-17 years. All fractures united. The weight bearing was authorized at an average of 67 days and was complete at an average of 89 days. All children returned to school before the end of the second postoperative month. An an average of 2.5 years, no rotational malalignment was present. Neither anteroposterior nor frontal malalignment of more than 2 degrees was noticed. A leg length discrepancy of more than 10 mm was present in 3 patients (8%). No injury of femoral head vascularization or of the proximal or distal growth plate was noticed. In our experience, this technique seems to be safe for the surgical treatment of the immature femoral shaft fractures. The elastic properties of titanium provide a very good stability of the montage, when the technique is correctly performed.