POP BOOT TRACTION

Fractures of upper end of femur are generally applied sometraction pre- peratively. Traditionally either skin or skeletal traction is applied. In this study weapplied traction via POP Boot with a T behind ankle in 354 cases of fracture upper end of femurduring pre-operative management and the results were compared with those of skin and skeletaltraction. Objectives: To see whether effective pre-op traction can be applied via POP Boot inupper femur fractures and what are the complications and cost effectiveness as comparedto skin and skeletal traction. Study: In 354 patients POP Boot was applied and 3 kg trationapplied to the injured limb with fracture femur while in 50 cases skin traction and in another 50cases skeletal traction was applied. Design: It’s a randomized prospective double blind study.Settings: Study was carried out in tertiary care hospitals including combined military hospitalsof Rawalpindi, Muzaffarabad and Kharian. Period: Study was conducted between the periods of10 Sep 2003 to 20 Sep 2012 (9 years and 10 days). Methods: All patients have either simple orcommunited fracture of upper end of femur. All patients were adults and received same amountof analgaesia. 3 kg traction was applied as standard in all cases. All patients were operated fortheir fracture femur within 2 to 10 days of applying traction. Results: Results were compared interms of pain control, reduction achieved, rotational control, and discomfort during applicationof tration, complications, and cost effectiveness and compared with standard skin and skeletaltractions. Conclusion: POP Boot traction is an easily applied, effective and cost effective way oftraction which has very low rate of complications and should be used for pre-op traction in alladult cases with upper femur fracture.