Bilateral non-union of high tibial osteotomies treated by total knee arthroplasty: a case report.

Abstract

Non-union following high tibial osteotomy (HTO) is very uncommon. We present a case of bilateral non-union of HTOs with end-stage knee arthritis treated with staged, bilateral, posterior stabilized knee replacements. A 77-year-old female presented to our clinic with complaints of debilitating knee pain. She used a frame to get about in her home, she was unable to get up stairs, and she rarely went outside. Simple radiographs revealed bilateral non-unions of her osteotomies, subluxation of the tibial plateauxs and severe knee osteoarthritis. At the time of surgery, the non-unions were found to be fibrous stable. We took a minimal tibial plateaux resection and used long stem tibial stems with offset couplers to bypass the non-unions. At minimum 1 year follow-up, she was walking pain free with full knee range of motion. We found that primary total knee replacement (TKR) using tibial stems and without treating the tibial non-union gave satisfactory results.