A comparison of nail-plate fixation and Ender's nailing in pertrochanteric fractures.

A randomized comparison was made of condylocephalic (Ender) nails and a nail-plate technique (McLaughlin) for fixation of trochanteric fractures, to evaluate the consumption of acute hospital bed-days, number of reoperations, peroperative blood loss, and operation time. Reoperations were performed in 30% of the Ender group and in 10% of the McLaughlin group and blood loss was doubled for the McLaughlin method. Our study has shown, that in our hands, patients operated on with Ender nails had more reoperations, but in spite of this the total cost, in the form of days in hospital or operation time was not increased.