VASCULARIZED BONE-GRAFTS IN THE TREATMENT OF LONG-BONE DEFECTS

Reconstruction of large bony defects of long bones was performed using vascularised fibular grafts in four patients at the Department of Ort hopaedic Surgery of the University of Ioannina Medical School. Indicat ions for grafting procedures in this small series had been the loss of bone due to the extensive resection of avascular and necrotic bone fr om septic pseudoarthrosis in three patients and congenital pseudarthro sis secondary to neurofibromatosis in a child. Primary skeletal union with graft hypertrophy occurred in three of the patients. The fourth p atient had an asymptomatic nonunion at the proximal end of the graft. The result in each patient was the presence of a well-aligned limb tha t had normal or nearly normal motion and acceptable length. (C) 1994 W iley-Liss, Inc.