Re-fracture of the Shaft of the Femur.

The term “ re-fracture “ was applied only to cases in which a femur broke again after beingjudged clinically and radiologically to be united enough to permit cessation of continuous splintage and to allow mobilisation and walking with or without crutches or a caliper. The term was not applied to any case in which there was any suggestion of delayed union or non-union. Cases in which a medullary nail had been used were not included, because of the difficulty in such cases of judging when adequate clinical and radiological union has been achieved. Between 1943 and 1962 thirty-four patients were treated at Oswestry for re-fracture of the femoral shaft. The radiographs of the thirteen patients treated between 1943 and 1948 were destroyed by fire, so that there remain for analysis the cases of the twenty-one patients treated between 1950 and 1962. There were four females and seventeen males. Their ages ranged from seven to fifty-eight years, the incidence of re-fracture being highest between the ages of sixteen and twenty (Table I). Two of the females broke their right femora and two their left; fourteen of the males broke the right femur and only three the left. Incidence-During the period under review 476 femoral shaft fractures were treated at