Introduction: Total femur arthroplasty (TFA) is a rare salvage limb procedure which serves as an effective alternative to limb amputation. Most commonly, it is indicated for oncologic orthopedic cases, and very few cases of a purely traumatic history for TFA have been documented. The decision to perform this complex procedure involves paying careful attention to reconstructive needs and functional expectations of the patient. Alternatives to this procedure are quite detrimental and include hip disarticulation and above-the-knee amputation.
Case report: A 66-year-old woman with a history of hypertension, and parkinsonism was brought into the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital. She has undergone a procedure for proximal femur nailing on her left hip in 2013 due to a trauma-related fracture. However, after the development of a series of complications, she underwent revision surgery on her left hip 6 times by different surgeons. This included surgeries for implant removal and fixation of a custom-made bipolar hemi-replacement hip, followed by a cemented bipolar hip hemi- replacement with plating and cerclage wires followed by infection, the treatment of which entailed implant removal and placement of an antibiotic cement. This was followed by a long stem constrained cemented total hip arthroplasty which also failed. The surgeon then made the decision to perform a TFA. 12-month follow-up post-operatively showed neither peri-prosthetic infection or inflammation nor any leg length discrepancy. The functional outcome on lower extremity function scale showed improvement from 0 pre-operatively to 31 at 12-month follow- up.
Conclusion: TFA serves as a viable technique for salvage of the lower extremity in cases of infected non-unions. However, a thorough evaluation of the particular case in the hand should be made before reaching a conclusion.
Keywords: Complete femur arthroplasty; dual incision technique; multiple surgery failure; revision surgery.