From January 2003 to December 2004, 160 consecutive intertrochanteric hip fractures has been treated at the Orthopaedic Rizzoli Institute by a new short intra-medullary rod, which can be distally locked, combined with two sliding screws that insert into the femoral neck and head. The rod is an undersized, titan one. It can be inserted percutaneously.

Fractures were classified pre-operatively according to stability and post-operatively according to the type of operative reduction.

The failure rate and post-operative stability were then compared according to the type of fracture and to the quality of operative reduction.

Results indicate that the pre-operative fracture classification is a significant determinant of post-operative stability. The type of operative reduction was not as significant a determinant of post-operative stability, but an anatomical reduction gives better clinical results.

Overall results shows that stable fractures has always healed and only minor complications has been observed. Unstable fractures has a percentage of drawbacks of 1.5% (3 in 160 pts) due to a wrong screw positioning ( 2 proximal and 1 distal ).

Three patients died in the early post-operative period due to cardiac failure.

No intraoperative fracture, no displacement of the fracture site and no “cut out” were observed.