A. Zumiotti et Mc. Ferreira, TREATMENT OF CONGENITAL PSEUDOARTHROSIS OF THE TIBIA BY MICROSURGICALFIBULA TRANSFER, Microsurgery, 15(1), 1994, pp. 37-43
Conventional methods for the treatment of congenital pseudarthrosis of
the tibia (CPT) often lead to unsatisfactory results and so microsurg
ical fibula transfer (MFT) has appeared as an option to treat this cha
llenging problem. In this series of 27 patients with CPT, we obtained
satisfactory results in 23 as assessed by the timing of bone union and
bone hypertrophy of the fibular transplant. The overall functional re
sults were also good; in 18 patients, the residual shortening was less
than 2 cm (with no limb shortening in 4) and in 7, shortening ranged
between 2 and 4 cm. All 25 patients resumed normal walking without the
help of braces after an average of 12 months. This report suggests th
at microvascular fibula transfers provide superior results in the trea
tment of CPT, especially when considering that many of such cases repr
esented previous surgical failures. (C) Wiley-Liss, Inc.