Bilateral growth plate fractures of the distal femur

• Main Authors: Sergio Artur Lopes Figueiredo, Luis Miguel Leonardo Machado, António Manuel Azevedo Magalhaes, Antonio Eugenio Suarez Sa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2014-01-01
• Series: Journal of Orthopedics, Traumatology and Rehabilitation
• Subjects: distal femur; physis; trauma
• Online Access: http://www.jotr.in/article.asp?issn=0975-7341;year=2014;volume=7;issue=2;spage=187;epage=189;aulast=Figueiredo
• ISSN: 0975-7341

Growth plate fractures represent about 18-30% of the total amount of fractures in a pediatric age. From these, about 2% to 7% happens in the distal growth plate of the femur, with Salter-Harris type II fractures, observed in about half of the cases. A single case report of a 12-year-old girl with bilateral femoral Salter-Harris type II distal growth plate fractures, who underwent closed reduction, followed by internal fixation with crossed smooth Kirschner wires in our hospital. Report on her 15-month follow-up. Bilateral femoral distal growth plate fractures are extremely rare. To our knowledge, this is the third case described in the literature for the ambulating child, the first studied in detail and also and the first that focuses on the short and medium term recovery.