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The judet quadricepsplasty: Long-term outcome of 21 cases
A Massè1, A Biasibetti, J Demangos
1Department of Orthopaedics, Traumatology and Occupational Medicine, University of Torino, Torino, Italy. alessandro.masse@unito.it
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.