Dl. Fernandez et S. Eggli, NONUNION OF THE SCAPHOID - REVASCULARIZATION OF THE PROXIMAL POLE WITH IMPLANTATION OF A VASCULAR BUNDLE AND BONE-GRAFTING, Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume, 77A(6), 1995, pp. 883-893
Eleven patients who had an ununited fracture of the scaphoid associate
d with loss of the blood supply to the proximal fragment were managed
operatively with a combination of an inlay corticocancellous bone graf
t from the iliac crest and implantation of the second dorsal intermeta
carpal artery its accompanying venae comitantes, and a thin cuff of pe
rivascular tissue. The absence of the blood supply to the proximal pol
e was evidenced both by radiographic changes - which included increase
d bone density, absence of normal trabeculae, and cystic changes - and
by failure to observe bleeding bone during the operation. There were
ten men and one woman, The average duration of non-union was fourteen
months (range, six to thirty-three months), Six patients had had previ
ous unsuccessful operative attempts to obtain union. Eight non-unions
were in the proximal one-third and three, at the waist of the scaphoid
, Union was achieved in ten patients at an average of ten weeks postop
eratively. According to the wrist-scoring system of the Mayo Clinic, a
t an average of five years (range, 2.5 to eleven years), three patient
s had a grade of excellent; three, good; three, fair; and two, poor, F
our patients had subsequent reconstructive procedures: radial styloide
ctomy, styloidectomy and resection of osteophytes, radioscapholunate a
rthrodesis, and total wrist arthrodesis were performed in one patient
each.