Treatment of femoral neck fractures in children with vascularized periosteal bone flaps

  Objective To investigate the treatment of femoral neck fractures in children with vascularized periosteal bone flaps and to evaluate their efficacy. Methods A total of 14 cases and 14 hips were treated from June 2003 to March 2014; ages ranged from 9 to 18 years, with a mean of (14.7±2.8) years; 10 cases were male and 4 cases were female. There were 9 old fractures of the femoral neck (and 5 cases of femoral head necrosis), 4 fresh fractures of the femoral neck, and 1 case of slipped femoral epiphysis. garden typing: 7 cases of type III and 7 cases of type IV. The surgery was performed with internal fixation by incision and hollow nail, and then treated by iliac flap graft with rotated deep iliac vessels in 8 cases and partial treatment with broad fascial tensor fasciae periosteal flap in 6 cases.  Results All 14 surgeries were successful, and the follow-up time ranged from 4 months to 129 months, with a mean of 47.8 months; 14 patients had X-ray suggestive of femoral neck fracture healing, and 5 patients with femoral head necrosis had femoral head repair. Evaluation by Ratliff criteria: excellent in 8 cases (57.1%), good in 5 cases (35.7%), and poor in 1 case (7.2%), with an excellent rate of 92.8%. Conclusion Periosteal bone flap with blood vessels is an effective and good method for treating femoral neck fracture and femoral head necrosis in children; partial periosteal flap graft with broad fascial tensor fasciae for treating femoral neck fracture and femoral head necrosis in children has not been reported in the literature, which is a new procedure with little injury and especially suitable for children.