A new method of internal fixation with compression for arthrodesis of the hip joint with a massive three-flanged nail and a self-locking compression device is presented.
The results of nineteen operations carried out on nineteen patients from ten to sixty-five years of age with a follow-up of from one to over five years are presented and discussed. In fourteen patients (74 per cent) there was sound bone fusion; in two others there was sound fibrous union, thus making a total of sixteen patients (84 per cent) with clinically solid fusion.
There was no postoperative mortality in the series. Wound sepsis was the most frequent postoperative complication.
This operation seems to have the following advantages: (1) once the technique is mastered it is not difficult; (2) external immobilization of the hip with plaster casts is seldom necessary; (3) walking may be permitted early (an average of seven weeks after operation); (4) knee exercises may be started immediately after operation; and (5) if union by bone occurs it does so usually within the first postoperative year. If a self-locking iliofemoral graft is applied fusion occurs more rapidly.