Lower limb fractures like floating knees are more common in urban areas of low-income countries. In addition, associated complex lesions are manifestations of polytrauma requiring correct and appropriate management. T...Lower limb fractures like floating knees are more common in urban areas of low-income countries. In addition, associated complex lesions are manifestations of polytrauma requiring correct and appropriate management. The treatment is mostly surgical. We present a 19-year-old patient with a floating knee due to ipsilateral femoral and tibial fractures and vascular compression treated with femoral and calcaneus traction followed by a long limb cast. For our patient, the management of the concomitant vascular compression threatening vital and functional prognosis was in focus aiming at avoiding a radical decision such as limb amputation. The non-operative treatment managed to restore the blood supply and save the limb. At the follow-up after 10 months the fractures were clinically healed and radiologically consolidated and the walking capacity was almost restored. Non-surgical treatment accompanied by daily monitoring can prevent the radical solution of amputation in the context of a floating knee with vascular compression. We want to draw attention to the weakness of the existing classifications because they do not take into account vascular lesions as well as the presence of open fractures to define the severity and evaluate the prognosis.展开更多
AIM To better understand how pediatric floating knee injuries are managed after the wide spread use of new orthopaedic technology.METHODS We searched EMBASE, COCHRANE and MEDLINE computerized literature databases from...AIM To better understand how pediatric floating knee injuries are managed after the wide spread use of new orthopaedic technology.METHODS We searched EMBASE, COCHRANE and MEDLINE computerized literature databases from the earliest date available in the databases to February 2017 using the following search term including variants and pleural counterparts: Pediatric floating knee. All studies were thoroughly reviewed by multiple authors. Reference lists from all articles were scrutinized to identify any additional studies of interest. A final database of individual patients was assembled from the literature. Univariate and multivariate statistical tests were applied to the assembled database to assess differences in outcomes.RESULTS The English language literature contains series with a total of 97 pediatric patients who sustained floating knee injuries. Patients averaged 9.3 years of age and were mostly male(73). Approximately 25% of the fractures were open injuries, more tibia(27) than femur(10). Over 75% of the fractures of both the tibia and the femur involved the diaphysis. More than half(52) of the patients were treated non-operatively for both fractures. As a sequela of the injury 32(33%) patients were left with a limb length discrepancy, 24(25%) patients had lengthening of the injured limb at follow up, while 8(8%) had shortening of the affected limb. Infection developed in 9 patients and 3 had premature physeal closure. Younger patients were more likely to be treated non-operatively(P < 0.001) and patients treated with operative intervention had statistically significant shorter hospital length of stays(P = 0.001).CONCLUSION Given the predominance of non-operative managementin published studies, the available literature is not clinically relevant since the popularization of internal fixation for pediatric long-bone展开更多
文摘Lower limb fractures like floating knees are more common in urban areas of low-income countries. In addition, associated complex lesions are manifestations of polytrauma requiring correct and appropriate management. The treatment is mostly surgical. We present a 19-year-old patient with a floating knee due to ipsilateral femoral and tibial fractures and vascular compression treated with femoral and calcaneus traction followed by a long limb cast. For our patient, the management of the concomitant vascular compression threatening vital and functional prognosis was in focus aiming at avoiding a radical decision such as limb amputation. The non-operative treatment managed to restore the blood supply and save the limb. At the follow-up after 10 months the fractures were clinically healed and radiologically consolidated and the walking capacity was almost restored. Non-surgical treatment accompanied by daily monitoring can prevent the radical solution of amputation in the context of a floating knee with vascular compression. We want to draw attention to the weakness of the existing classifications because they do not take into account vascular lesions as well as the presence of open fractures to define the severity and evaluate the prognosis.
文摘AIM To better understand how pediatric floating knee injuries are managed after the wide spread use of new orthopaedic technology.METHODS We searched EMBASE, COCHRANE and MEDLINE computerized literature databases from the earliest date available in the databases to February 2017 using the following search term including variants and pleural counterparts: Pediatric floating knee. All studies were thoroughly reviewed by multiple authors. Reference lists from all articles were scrutinized to identify any additional studies of interest. A final database of individual patients was assembled from the literature. Univariate and multivariate statistical tests were applied to the assembled database to assess differences in outcomes.RESULTS The English language literature contains series with a total of 97 pediatric patients who sustained floating knee injuries. Patients averaged 9.3 years of age and were mostly male(73). Approximately 25% of the fractures were open injuries, more tibia(27) than femur(10). Over 75% of the fractures of both the tibia and the femur involved the diaphysis. More than half(52) of the patients were treated non-operatively for both fractures. As a sequela of the injury 32(33%) patients were left with a limb length discrepancy, 24(25%) patients had lengthening of the injured limb at follow up, while 8(8%) had shortening of the affected limb. Infection developed in 9 patients and 3 had premature physeal closure. Younger patients were more likely to be treated non-operatively(P < 0.001) and patients treated with operative intervention had statistically significant shorter hospital length of stays(P = 0.001).CONCLUSION Given the predominance of non-operative managementin published studies, the available literature is not clinically relevant since the popularization of internal fixation for pediatric long-bone
