Treatment of nonunions with irretrievable broken nail pieces in the distal fragment.

Introduction: We present our experience in the treatment of nonunited fractures of long bones in the presence of a retained fragment of the broken intramedullary nail.

Materials And Method: Of 287 long bone fractures treated by intramedullary fixation, we recalled 5 patients with broken intramedullary nails. In two patients the distal fragments of broken nails were not extracted and refixation was performed by an Ilizarov ring fixation with the broken piece left in situ.