[Plate and screw osteosynthesis in femoral shaft fractures. Retrospective study of 500 femur shaft fractures].

The authors collected 500 cases of breaks of the thighbone shaft which were treated using osteosynthesis with screws, between 1st January 1992 and 31st of December 1996 at the Department for Traumatology of the University Medical Center in Ljubljana. Most patients were male (70.6%), the average age was 36.6 years, and the majority of patients had been injured in traffic accidents. In 50% of cases, only the thighbone was broken, the rest had suffered multiple injuries, or were polytraumatised. Their stay in hospital averaged 17 days, while the average time to union was 21 weeks. In most cases (85%), treatment proceeded with no complications. Chronical post-traumatic osteitis occurred in 9 of the patients with open breaks (1.8%), and only in 2 patients (0.4%) with closed breaks, which is within the limits of tolerance. With respect to our experience and results with osteosynthesis with plates and screws in the thighbone shaft, we believe that the mentioned method is good and gives results which are comparable to those achieved using other methods.