Evaluation of twenty-four consecutive patients with fracture of the
femoral shaft showed injuries of the ligaments of the ipsilateral knee in
eight (33 per cent) of them. The history was always one of violent injury,
but the examiner had to suspect that this combination of injuries had
occurred simultaneously before a careful local physical examination
elicited diagnostic signs. Then, pin stabilization of the distal part of
the femur with stress radiographs of the knee yielded an early diagnosis.
Late recognition of the combined injuries usually could be documented by
radiographs of the femur and the knee in traction.