Peri prosthetic fracture (Fracture around replacement implant)

After replacement surgery, patients regain normal function. Therefore they are subjected to injuries like any normal individual. When such a person falls or injured in vehicular accident, she may sustain fracture around artificial joint component, known as peri prosthetic fracture

The treatment depends whether the artificial joint is still well placed or not. If it still well placed as in following two cases, the treatment consists of fixing the broken bone, without changing the component.

This is a very tricky operation that requires skills both of fracture surgeon as well as joint replacement specialist. Availability of locking compression plate has made treatment of these complex fractures easy.

Case 1

 

Since there is already a metallic component inside the broken bone, one needs special plate- called locking compression plate- to fix this bone.

Case 2

 

Case 3

This unfortunate lady had bad lungs for which she was put on steroids. The overdose of steroid was necessary because of very poor lung function. This overdose led to shrinkage of femoral head, a condition called “Avascular necrosis”, meaning shrinkage of ball due to stoppage of blood supply.

The surgery of bone grafting gave her good pain relief for few years but later it failed causing pain in the hip and limp