To The Editor:
We read with interest the article "Complications of Titanium and Stainless Steel Elastic Nail Fixation of Pediatric Femoral Fractures" (2008;90:1305-13), in which Wall et al. report a 23.2% rate of malunion with use of titanium elastic nails in pediatric femoral fractures. This rate is unusually high when compared with the malunion rates of approximately 10% in similar published studies on the use of this device1-7.
The average time of recommended implant removal is between six months and one year, when circumferential callus appears to be solid and the fracture line is no longer visible3,6,7. However, Wall et al. extracted the implant at an average of 4.5 months following insertion. Early removal of the implant could be responsible for the higher rates of malunion in this study.
Wall et al. also reported an increase in the angle of malunion between the immediate postoperative evaluation and the time of final follow-up. This finding could be attributable to early implant removal as well. In addition, the authors did not report when they allowed patients to begin weight-bearing in the two groups; early weight-bearing could contribute to these problems.
Finally, the authors favored the use of stainless steel over titanium elastic nails but did not compare the average time to fracture union or look for any other significant differences between the groups.