BACKGROUND: Distal femoral fracture is one of the possible complications on the post operative period of the ACL reconstruction; however, with rare incidence. CASE REPORT: This study reports a male 34 year-old athlete, five months after ACL reconstruction surgery. The case developed normally in accordance with the established protocol. The patient presented good control and sensory-motor stability when he suffered a supracondylar femur fracture. This fracture occurred during a jump in the physical therapy treatment. The ligament reconstruction was done with the tendon graft of the knee flexors muscles, and the fracture caused later, was reduced and stabilized with plate and screw. Ten months after open reduction and internal fixation of the fracture, the patient showed regular function in the Lysholm scale, normal range of movement and muscular force grade V for knee flexors and extensors. DISCUSSION: Few case reports similar to the present one were found in the literature. The majority presented femur fracture after ACL reconstruction with patellar tendon. The present case shows significance by the association between supracondylar femur fracture with ligament reconstruction with flexors tendon, since only one case followed this direction. Two of the possible causes of this fracture are bone fragility for disuse and femoral tunnel bone bigger than the normal, despite not being a consensus. A hypothesis suggested by the authors of this paper is that the bone tunnel of graft fixation could have been a stress booster to the site of the fracture.
complication; surgery; knee
