We divided 131 patients who had a subtrochanteric fracture into four
clinical groups: elderly patients who had a fracture secondary to minor
trauma, patients who had a fracture due to high-energy trauma, those who
had a pathological fracture, and patients who had a fracture that
previously had been treated unsuccessfully with internal fixation. In each
patient operative fixation was performed using the Zickel device, and
overall satisfactory results were obtained in 90 per cent. Considering the
challenging nature of subtrochanteric fractures, complications, which
included a rate of non-union of approximately 5 per cent, were minimum.
Technical details for each of the four groups are emphasized.