Introduction:

Subtrochanteric fractures are associated with a high rate of complications. Intramedullary nails have proven to be the best choice for treatment, but no implant has been shown to be superior to another. We want to study the differences between treating subtrochanteric fractures in the elderly with two different types of nails: T2 Recon vs Gamma3 long.

Material and methods:

Comparative retrospective study between 2013 and 2015 with 54 patients with subtrochanteric fractures and more than 65 years. The average follow-up is 12 months; 26 patients were treated with T2 Recon, and 28 with Gamma3. The duration of surgery, need for transfusion, evolution and complications of fractures were compared in both groups.

Results:

The duration of surgery was significantly longer for T2 Recon (p = 0.035), while the need for transfusion and fracture evolution were similar in both groups. Three cases required another surgery to achieve the final consolidation of the fracture. Two of them due to a failure of the T2 Recon implant, which represents 7.69% of the patients in this group, while the other case belonged to the Gamma3 group and it was sufficient to perform a nail dynamization.

Conclusions:

We found no statistically significant differences, except for a longer surgical time in the T2 Recon group, being a surgeon-dependent variable that is not enough to prove that one nail is better than another.