Summary
Femoral capital physeal fractures (CPF) are common injuries in the immature cat. Fractures
of the femoral head and neck have been classified by Daly (1) as capital, physeal,
subcapital and transcervical. Physeal fractures may also be classified according to
Salter (2) and those covered in this paper are Salter I and II.
Perez-Aparicio and Fjeld (2) found that many cats become functional without surgical
treatment although most developed malunion or non-union. Some of the untreated cats
had persistent lameness.
While femoral head and neck ostectomy (3), is often recommended and will usually lead
to a functional result, particularly in the cat, open reduction and internal fixation
is preferred (5, 6) as is recommended in the dog (8, 21).
Fourteen femoral capital physeal fractures in 13 cats were repaired with fine pins.
The surgical technique and clinical results are described. The authors feel that the
ease of the technique and the clinical results make this the treatment of choice for
injuries of this type in cats.
Keywords
Hip - feline - capital physeal injury - repair - pins