Retrograde nailing of femoral shaft fractures has been a routine trauma practice option for approximately five years and may be technically advantaged in many situations. Earlier review of our antegrade experience revealed that 30% of standard nails are recognized to frequently cause pain (30%) and/or heterotopic ossification at the hip; knee pain of unclear etiology was found frequently as well (13%). This review of our preliminary experience with retrograde nails found a 30% frequency of nonspecific knee pain complaints at a mean of thirty-four months. No ectopic ossification was seen and no nails had been removed. The purpose of this study was to review the experience of patients who have undergone retrograde femoral nailing with regard to possible knee pain complaints. Chart and imaging records were reviewed retrospectively. Patients were contacted and interviewed by telephone to determine late pain complaints. From January 2000 through February 2002, eighteen patients were treated for twenty-two femoral shaft fractures. The group included ten males and and eight females of mean age 54.5 years (range, nineteen to ninety years). Treatment was with Synthes retrograde femoral nails, reamed and statically locked, inserted under fluoroscopic control on a radiolucent table using a Tenet™ leg holder. At thirty-four months, all fractures had healed primarily with no appreciable malalignment, no infections and no nonunions. No intraarticular free bodies or ectopic ossification were seen. Eleven patients were asymptomatic with regard to the index injured extremity. Five had mild to moderate pain, generally localized anteriorly, without associated articular symptoms and not requiring any analgesia. Two had severe symptoms of diffuse knee pain with radiographic degenerative changes noted, but these were cases with associated complex tibial plateau fractures to account for it. Even eliminating these two patients, fully five of sixteen patients (30%) without associated periarticular trauma at the knee had mild to moderate nondisabling anterior knee pain complaints after retrograde femoral nailing. The frequency of anterior knee pain complaints after retrograde femoral nailing is significant. Previous authors have found knee pain complaints in 27–29% of cases. We found no evidence of articular derangement in our patients undergoing retrograde femoral nailing in the absence of associated periarticular trauma at the knee, we confirm a 30% frequency of nonspecific knee pain complaints persisting at almost three years after injury. Patients should be made aware that, at intermediate-term follow-up, mild to moderate knee pain may be a result of this fracture treatment.
