Elastic stable intramedullary nailing (ESIN) is well established for stabilizing pediatric diaphyseal and special metaphyseal limb fractures. Expanding its application requires the evaluation of problems and complications to prevent uncritical use.Four pediatric surgical departments participated in a retrospective study. Between 1990 and 1998, 937 fractures were treated by ESIN. Major indications were forearm and femur fractures. Continuous documentation of treatment, postoperative course and follow-up formed the basis of evaluation. Analysis was subdivided into intraoperative problems, postoperative problems, and complications.Intraoperative problems (6.5%) were characterized by open reduction, cortical perforation by a nail tip with subsequent instability and by iatrogenic bursting of a third fragment. Postoperatively, 6.4% of patients showed soft tissue irritation due to nail ends or joint effusions. Complications (8.4%) included axial deviation > 10° or instability of osteosynthesis in 5.3% and nerve injuries in 1.4%. Delayed healing, pseudarthrosis, osteomyelitis and synostosis were only observed in isolated cases, 5 children sustained a refracture.Severe complications are rare, problems arise from suboptimal technique and incorrect indication. Detailed knowledge of technical principles and procedural recommendations constitutes the mainstay in prevention. Key WordsFracture · Children · Elastic stable intramedullary nailing (ESIN) · Complications Eur J Trauma 2000;26:287-93

Pathogenesis of CRMO still remains unknown. Characteristic, but not pathognomonic for this syndrome are clinical course (age, sex, chronic recurrent, intermittent course), radiological findings (metaphyseal lesions), histology (chronic osteomyelitis without colliquation) and microbiological results (lack of pathogen, infectious agents). Favorable, self-limited long-term prognosis of CRMO has been assumed. Antibiotics provide no improvement. Course, severity and recurrency can be influenced positively by antiphlogistic substances, although this has not yet been proved. Whether surgical intervention beyond biopsies might cause improvement on the follow-up is unknown. Our experience (4 cases), and the literature demonstrate great clinical importance that unusual types of osteomyelitis (OM) can be within the differential diagnosis of multifocal osteolytic changes.

Juvenile bone cysts usually are asymptomatic and may manifest as pathological fractures. Since the new method of flexible intramedullary nailing (" Elastic Stable Intramedullary Nailing" - ESIN or " Embrochage Centro- Médullaire Elastique Stable" - ECMES) has demonstrated superb results in the treatment of non-pathologic fractures of the long bones in childhood, this method is rapidly gaining popularity for the treatment of spontaneous or pathological fractures. Given the self-limiting natural history of juvenile bone cysts with eventual spontaneous healing, our goal is to stabilise the pathological fracture and the biomechanically weakened humerus. We treated 15 patients with 16 pathological fractures (one re-fracture) due to juvenile bone cysts of the proximal humerus. All fractures healed completely without pseudarthrosis. Complications were a secondary fracture in otherwise correctly positioned nails. Five of the 15 implants remain in situ, in 6 cases a repeat osteosynthesis was necessary, in one case the nails had to be changed because of the re-fracture. Ten of the 15 juvenile bone cysts healed over a period of 3 years, the nails were removed and so far there have been no further fractures in this group. In the other 5 cases, the juvenile bone cysts have progressively filled with sclerotic bone, and the nails remain in situ.

IV.

PurposeThe therapy of distal radial fractures in children is expected to be as non-invasive as possible but also needs to deliver the definite care for gaining optimal reduction and stabilizing the fracture. Therefore, closed reduction and immobilization is competing with routine Kirschner wire fixation. The aim of our study was to investigate if closed reduction and immobilization without osteosynthesis can ensure stabilization of the fracture.MethodsWe chose a retrospective study design and analyzed 393 displaced distal radial fractures in children from 1 to 18 years with open epiphyseal plates studying medical files and X-rays. The Pearson’s χ2 test was applied. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0. Statistical significance was set at an alpha level of P = 0.05.ResultsOf these studied fractures 263 cases were treated with closed reduction and immobilization. Only 38 of these needed secondary interventions, 28 of these underwent reduction after redisplacement and ten patients received secondary Kirschner wire fixation. The last follow-up examination after 4–6 weeks revealed that 96.4 % of fractures initially treated with closed reduction and immobilization were measured within the limits of remodeling. 104 of the studied fractures were treated with cast immobilization alone when displacement was expected to correct due to remodeling. Here 22.1 % of patients needed secondary reduction. Furthermore, primary Kirschner wire fixation was performed in only 25 children with unstable fractures and only one received further treatment. Interestingly, operative reports of primary closed reduction revealed that repeated maneuvers of reduction as well as residual displacement are risk factors for redisplacement.ConclusionFor the treatment of displaced distal radial fractures in children closed reduction and immobilization can be considered the method of choice. However, for cases with repeated reduction maneuvers or residual displacement we recommend primary Kirschner wire fixation to avoid redisplacement.Level of evidenceRetrospective comparative study, Level III