• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.104-111
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• 2020

Purpose: Although exchange nailing is a standard method of treating femoral shaft nonunion, various rates of healing, ranging from 72% to 100%, have been reported. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of exchange nailing in femoral shaft nonunion. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 30 cases of aseptic femoral shaft nonunion after intramedullary nailing. The mean postsurgical period of nonunion was 66.8 weeks. A nail at least 2 mm larger in diameter was selected to replace the previous nail after reaming. Distal fixation was performed using at least two interlocking screws. The success of the procedure was determined by the finding of union on simple radiographs. Possible reasons for failure were analyzed, including the location of nonunion, the type of nonunion, and the number of screws used for distal fixation. Results: Of the 30 cases, 27 achieved primary healing with the technique of exchange nailing. The average time to achieve union was 23.1 weeks (range, 13.7-36.9 weeks). The three failures involved nonunion at the isthmic level (three of 15 cases), not at the infraisthmic level (zero of 15 cases). Of eight cases of oligotrophic nonunion, two (25%) failed to heal, and of 22 cases of hypertrophic nonunion, one (4.5%) failed to heal. Of 11 cases involving two screws at the distal fixation, two (18.2%) failed to heal, and of 19 cases involving three or more screws, one (5.3%) failed to heal. None of these findings was statistically significant. Conclusions: Exchange nailing may enable successful healing in cases of aseptic nonunion of the femoral shaft. Although nonunion at the isthmic level, oligotrophic nonunion, and weaker distal fixation seemed to be associated with a higher chance of failure, further study is needed to confirm those findings.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.112-118
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• 1997

Multicentric chondrosarcoma other than the mesenchymal subtype is rare separate entity. We experienced a case with nonmonomelic synchronous multicentric chondrosarcoma without any preexisting lesions of Oilier's disease or Maffucci's syndrome. To our knowledge, there was no report of synchronous nonmonomelic multicentric chondrosarcoma. A thirty-three year old man had right distal thigh pain of one and half year. Bone scan showed hot lesions on medial condyle of right femur and shaft of left femur. Plain X-ray showed osteolytic lesion on right femur and slight cortical thickening and calcific lesion was observed on left femoral shaft. Curettage and bone cement filling was done on both lesions. The pathology reports were grade I chondrosarcoma on both side of femur. At one month from operation, pathologic fracture of left femur occurred on bone cement-host bone junction. Conservative treatment and radiotherapy of 60Gy was done. At 8 months from operation, nonunion was evident. Segmental resection of left femur with contralateral fibula graft and second look operation on right condyle lesion were done. At 6 months from revision, fracture occurred at host-graft bone junction. We removed previous hardware and applied long DCP and massive autogenous bone graft. Afterwards, the patient looks good and union was progressing. But at 4 years from last operation, hypertrophic nonunion occurred. Another revision was done with condylar plate and bone graft and now he is well without any sign of local recurrence or metastasis.