Challenges in the management of floating knee injuries in a resource constrained setting

Floating knee injuries pose major challenges in management. There is little information on the patterns of these injuries and the challenges of managing them in our setting. Patients with floating knee injuries who were seen and treated over a 5-year period at our center were retrospectively reviewed. The patterns of the injuries, associated injuries, methods of management and factors that influenced the outcome were analyzed. Twenty-five patients, consisting of 19 males and 6 females with a mean age of 33.4 ± 16.04 years, satisfied the study criteria. All were caused by road traffic injuries, motor cycle crashes accounting for 19 (76 %). Twenty-two (88 %) injuries were Blake and McBryde type 1, while 3 (12 %) were of type 2A. Thirty-two percent of the patients had surgical fixation of both fractures, while 40 % of the patients had both fractures managed non-operatively. Non-operative management strongly correlated with development of malunion. The results of management of floating injuries in our setting are not satisfactory. Orthopedic and trauma care should be made accessible to those requiring it.