Complications of Ender-pin fixation in basicervical, intertrochanteric, and subtrochanteric fractures of the hip

Two hundred patients with a basicervical, intertrochanteric, or subtrochanteric fracture were treated by Ender-pin fixation during a three-year period. Their median age was 73.5 years and there was a 10 per cent mortality rate. Early partial weight-bearing with some external support was allowed for most patients. Minimum shortening and one non-union occurred. However, there was a substantial incidence of complications. The fixation failed in all basicervical fractures. Distal pin migration of more than two centimeters occurred in 50 per cent of the unstable inter-trochanteric fractures. Seventy-six per cent of the forty-two patients who were personally examined at follow-up had pain in the knee and 36 per cent had external malrotation. The incidence of pin migration increased in the more unstable fractures.