Doppler ultrasound monitoring of complications and callus blood supply at distraction site during distraction osteogenesis / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Evaluation of the newly formed bone at the distraction site by the imaging technologies is the cornerstone for terminating the limb lengthening successfuly.In the early stages of the distraction, the X-ray cannot detect any evidence of new bone formation within the distraction sites, whereas ultrasound can acquire wealth information about new bone and surrounding soft tissues. OBJECTIVE: To explore the application value of Doppler ultrasound in the evaluation of limb lengthening in order to promote its clinical application. METHODS: A computer-based search was performed on the CNKI database and PubMed database for articles related to ultrasound in the evaluation of limb lengthening published from January 1989to October 2014. The keywords of distraction osteogenesis, ultrasonography, external fixation, fracture healing in English and Chinese were used to search the articles by title and abstract. Finaly, a total of 24 articles were included to review. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Ultrasound is an effective method to evaluate the limb lengthening in early stage. It can not only detect the formation and maturation of the new calus, but also can evaluate the forming speed and the quality of the new cals. Moreover, ultrasound can be used to evaluate the situation of the soft tissue near the distraction site. Complications associated with the limb lengthening can be observed timely by the ultrasound. Ultrasound is of great significance in the evaluation of distraction osteogenesis.