Chinese journal of traumatology = Zhonghua chuang shang za zhi / Chinese Medical Association
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Chin. J. Traumatol. · Aug 2016
Randomized Controlled TrialTreatment of pediatric femoral shaft fractures by stainless steel and titanium elastic nail system: A randomized comparative trial.
Literature suggests that the lower modulus of elasticity of titanium makes it ideal for use in children compared with stainless steel. Better fracture stability was observed in association with titanium nails on torsional and axial compression testing. However, stainless steel nails are stiffer than titanium counterparts, which may provide a rigid construct when fixing paediatric femoral shaft fractures. Complications have been observed more frequently by various researchers when titanium nails are used for fracture fixation in patients with increasing age or weight. The concept of this study was to compare the functional outcome after internal fixation with titanium elastic nail system and stainless steel elastic nail system in paediatric femoral shaft fractures. ⋯ Majority of paediatric femoral shaft fractures are now treated operatively by elastic stable intramedullary nails. Operative intervention results in a shorter hospital stay and has economic and social benefits over conservative treatment. The cost of stainless steel nail is one third the cost of titanium nail. However, the clinico-radiological results are not significantly different between titanium and stainless steel nails at one year follow-up as observed by our study.