The judet quadricepsplasty: Long-term outcome of 21 cases.

BACKGROUND

The lack of knee flexion represents a possible complication in severe femur fractures. In 1956, Judet proposed a quadricepsplasty technique that allowed for a graded release without the disruption of the vastus medialis obliqus, vastus lateralis, or rectus femoris.

METHODS

This article reports the clinical outcome of 21 cases of Judet quadricepsplasty after an average follow-up of 101.0 months (range, 21-204 months). The definitive flexion gain was classified as excellent, good, fair, or poor. Excellent when >100 degrees, good when >80 <99 degrees, fair when >50 degrees <79 degrees, poor when <50 degrees. The flexion and extension strength were graded from 0 to 5, according to the Daniel's scale.

RESULTS

The average strength score was 4.71 in flexion, 4.81 in extension. The average definitive flexion was 95.67 degrees (range, 54-128 degrees) and the average definitive flexion gain was 72.43 degrees (range, 40-122 degrees). When the patients were grouped on the basis of the definitive flexion, excellent results were observed in eight cases (38.10%), were good in nine (42.86%), and fair in four (19.05) with zero poor results.

CONCLUSIONS

Our experience has shown that, even if first proposed in 1956, the Judet procedure still gives a reproducible amount of good results.