The floating knee: a review on ipsilateral femoral and tibial fractures

Abstract

In 1975, Blake and McBryde established the concept of ‘floating knee’ to describe ipsilateral fractures of the femur and tibia.1 This combination is much more than a bone lesion; the mechanism is usually a high-energy trauma in a patient with multiple injuries and a myriad of other lesions. After initial evaluation patients should be categorised, and only stable patients should undergo immediate reduction and internal fixation with the rest receiving external fixation. Definitive internal fixation of both bones yields the best results in almost all series. Nailing of both bones is the optimal fixation when both fractures (femoral and tibial) are extra-articular. Plates are the ‘standard of care’ in cases with articular fractures. A combination of implants are required by 40% of floating knees. Associated ligamentous and meniscal lesions are common, but may be irrelevant in the case of an intra-articular fracture which gives the worst prognosis for this type of lesion. Cite this article: Muñoz Vives K, Bel J-C, Capel Agundez A, Chana Rodríguez F, Palomo Traver J, Schultz-Larsen M, Tosounidis, T. The floating knee. EFORT Open Rev 2016;1:375-382. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.1.000042.