Ender's nails in femoral shaft fractures

Thirty-five patients with uncomplicated fractures of the femoral shaft were treated by closed reduction and internal fixation with Ender's nails. Twenty-eight similar patients were treated by Küntscher's nailing. The average blood loss after Ender's fixation was 110 ml compared with 450 ml after Küntscher's nailing and the ranges of operative time were 9–30 minutes and 24–50 minutes respectively. Patients were mobilized on average 9 days after Ender's nailing and 75 per cent had a hospital stay of less than 3 weeks. The comparable figures after Küntscher's nailing were 13 days and 4 weeks. All patients regained 80–90 per cent of knee flexion by 4 months. Thus Ender's nails proved to be a reliable method of medullary fixation in young adults with femoral shaft fractures and caused less morbidity than Küntscher's nailing.