How to manage a breaking reamer? Two case reports and literature review

We report two cases of reamer breakage during femoral nailing. This complication is rarely reported, we found only six cases. It is an unexpected perioperative complication experienced by the authors as a stressful or catastrophic situation. In our first case, a flexible reamer was broken at the distal end while reaming the femur. The olivary tip of the guide was helpful to extract it. In the second case, rigid reamer with a smooth guide nail was used. The reamer was broken at the distal end above the fracture. In order to extract the incarcerating part, we needed to approach the fracture. The purpose of this study is to emphasize this unpredictable complication and to report different solutions proposed by the authors.