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Supracondylar Periprosthetic Fracture Above a Total Knee Replacement Repaired Using a Lateral Distal Femoral Locking Plate

This case appears in the HSS publication Grand Rounds from HSS - Management of Complex Cases, Spring 2014 - Volume 5, Issue 1, Case 1

Case 1, presented by Charles N. Cornell, MD and Peter K. Sculco, MD describes a 77-year-old male in good general health who presented with painful osteoarthritis of the left knee of several years' duration. Conservative measures had failed to adequately control the painful symptoms. The patient elected left total knee replacement (TKR), which was performed with posteriorly stabilized components. Two weeks following discharge, the patient slipped and fell while entering a coffee shop and suffered a displaced supracondylar fracture above the femoral component at the diaphyseal-metaphyseal junction (Figures 1A and 1B). ORIF using a condylar locking plate was planned. At 4 months after repair of the fracture, radiographs revealed abundant callus formation and the patient was advanced to full weight bearing (Figure 3). At one year following fracture repair lower extremity swelling had resolved, full ambulation was restored and the patient had full extension with flexion to 120 degrees.  

Read full case details in Volume 5, Issue 1 of Grand Rounds - Complex Cases.

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