Abstract

Background: Floating Knee injuries are considered as complex injuries. It ranges from simple shaft fracture to complex articular fractures, it will make a challenging task to manage. In this article we present the functional outcome of surgical stabilization of floating knee injuries and comparative analysis between FRASER type I and type II A,B,C fractures.

Objective: The aim of the study is to analyse the functional outcome of surgical stabilization of floating knee injuries and carry out a comparative analysis between FRASER types I and type II A, B, C fractures. Methods: For this study 28 consecutive patients with ipsilateral femur and tibia fractures who presented to Casualty, Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai Medical College, Madurai, and surgical management were included. This study is a prospective study with a minimum of 6 months follow up for the patients

Results: The mechanism of injury was road traffic accident with 34 patients. Out of the 34 patients 2 patients ended up in amputation and 4 patients were lost in the follow-up. Hence a total of 28 patients were studied. Open fractures were seen in 5 patients with femur and 10 patients with tibia. Associated injuries are for 12 patients with femur intraarticular fractures and 11 patients with tibia intraarticular fractures. From observation, there was a wide range of post-operative complications such as ARDS in one patient, infection in seven patients, delayed union in seven patients and malunion in six patients. Finally as part of end results, overall average knee range of motion was 0 to 900. The average knee range of motion in excellent outcome group of patients was 0 - 1150, good outcome group of patients had 0 - 1000, acceptable outcome group of patients had 0 - 900 and poor outcome group of patients had 10 - 400. Final results were validated based on Karlstorm and Olerud to grade the functional outcome of floating knee injuries.

Conclusion: Floating knee injuries occurs due to high velocity trauma. Road traffic accidents particularly two wheeler accident is the commonest cause of the injuries and highly affected is male. Many associated with other injuries such as patellar fractures, cruciate ligament injuries and vascular injuries. Appropriate management of the associated injuries, the most important factors is to determine the functional outcome on the type of fractures, nature of comminution, intraarticular extension, mode of fixation and post-operative infection, it is important to reach the effective final outcome.

Keywords: Floating Knee Injury; Femur, Tibia; Fraser Type I and Type II; Karlstorm and Olerud Scoring

References

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Citation

Citation: Jaiganesh Veerappan. "Functional Outcomes of Floating Knee Injuries after Surgical Management: A Comprehensive Study and Treatment Results".Acta Scientific Orthopaedics 3.3 (2020): 16-22.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Jaiganesh Veerappan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.