Secondary reconstruction after vascularized fibular transfer.

Abstract

We evaluated the results of skeletal reconstruction performed through a mature, vascularized fibular graft in five patients. The average time-interval between the original transplant and the secondary reconstruction was sixty-eight months. The indication for the initial graft had been the loss of bone secondary to trauma in one patient, a skeletal defect due to ablation of a tumor in two patients, and osseous loss due to resection of a congenital pseudarthrosis in two patients. The indication for the second reconstruction was non-union of a fracture as a result of a new traumatic injury in two patients and complex angular deformity in three patients; one of the patients in the latter group had an associated leg-length discrepancy. In all five patients, the second reconstruction was successful, and the vascularized fibular graft responded to the procedure in a manner similar to normal cortical bone.