Treatment of Chronic Cavitary Osteomyelitis with Fragmentary Partial Bone Transport: A Report of New Operative Technique

Roh, Jae Young; Lee, Dong Wook; Seo, Jeong Min

Abstract

PURPOSE
To report the challenging problems in the treatment of patients with chronic cavitary osteomyelitis that is refractory to conventional treatment methods, and to illustrate the author's newly designed fragmentary partial bone transport technique using the modification of the Ilizarov method. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three patients with chronic cavitary osteomyelitis with a large cavitary bone defect of the tibia were treated with the author's newly designed biological fragmentary partial bone transport technique. RESULTS: After an average of 78 days of fragmentary partial bone transport, the cavitary bone defects were completely filled with the transported bone fragment, and the draining sinus disappeared without any evidence of active infection. The Ilizarov frame was removed on an average of 271.3 days after surgery. The mean total length of the distraction was 8.0 cm and the mean healing index was 33.9 days/cm. CONCLUSION: A fragmentary partial bone transport technique using the Ilizarov apparatus can solve the problem of chronic cavitary osteomyelitis of the tibia by filling the bone defect with new living bone without sacrificing the bony continuity and effectively eradicating the infection. Therefore, this new technique is an effective treatment for chronic cavitary osteomyelitis of the tibia.