Bone quality in osteopetrosis patient is very hard but brittle and easily fractured by triviat trauma. In case of pathological fractures in osteopetrosis patient, most of the fractures are treated by conservative treatments. But some long bone fractures are difficult to treat conservatively.
A few surgeons treated the fracture by open reduction and internal fixation(ORIF) and they came to agree that ORIF of fractures were very difficult technically. We tried plate and screw fixation for a subtrochanteric fracture of femur in a 20-year-old osteopetrosis patient who have already had 4 previous long bone fractures.
1. We changed drill bit everytime for every screw hole penetration and it took about 2 minutes for a hole.
2. ORIF is adventageous in fracture of suitable location in osteopetrosis patient.