MEDULLARY NAILING FOR FRACTURE OF THE SHAFT OF THE TIBIA

Abstract

1. A method of medullary nailing of fractures of the shaft of the tibia with a straight clover-leaf nail of large calibre is described. The nail is introduced, without exposure of the fracture, through the deep infrapatellar bursa. No external splint is used and the patient is usually allowed to walk as soon as the wound is healed. The technique is essentially that of Küntscher. 2. The results obtained in the first fifty patients so treated are described. The average period of absence from work for those twenty-five whose treatment was satisfactory was eleven weeks. There were no cases of sepsis or non-union; the only difficulties encountered were mechanical ones.