• Philip B Schöttle, Clément M L Werner, and Charles E Dumont.
• Department of Orthopaedics, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
• Acta Orthop. 2005 Dec 1; 76 (6): 878-83.

BackgroundVascularized soft tissue transfer may give better results of treatment of infected nonunions of the tibia.Methods6 patients with infected nonunion of the tibia and combined soft tissue (70-170 cm(2)) and bony (5-8 cm) defects underwent staged reconstruction. Initial surgery consisted of soft tissue and bone debridement, external fixation, filling of the bony defect with a gentamicin-impregnated cement spacer, and reconstruction of the soft tissue with a free microsurgical muscle flap and skin graft. Second-stage surgery consisted of removal of the cement spacer and osseous reconstruction with nonvascularized bone graft.ResultsAll patients except 1 achieved full weight-bearing and radiographic consolidation after 7-10 months. This patient required repeated bone grafting and internal plate fixation to heal. There were no cases of recurrence of infection at the latest follow-up, after a mean of 3 (1.5-5) years.InterpretationStaged reconstruction with free vascularized soft tissue transfer and conventional bone grafting within a cement-induced membrane is a low-risk surgical strategy resulting in a high rate of bone healing.

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