Tibial bone transport over an intramedullary nail in combination with antibiotic-loaded calcium sulphate for treatment of segmental bone defect / 国际外科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the clinical outcomes of tibial bone transport over an intramedullary nail in combination with antibiotic-loaded calcium sulphate for treatment of segmental bone defect.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted by enrolling 11 surgically treated patients with tibial segmental bone defect after the debridement for tibial infection or osteomyelitis who were admitted in Lower Limb Surgery Ward of Traumatic Orthopedic Department, Xi′an Honghui Hospital Affiliated to Xi′an Jiaotong University from Jan. 2018 to Jan. 2020. The collected clinical materials and data included gender, age, injury mechanism, smoke or alcohol, comorbidities, intraoperative bleeding loss, bone defect length, resorption time of calcium sulphate, bone transport time, external fixation time, external fixation index, complications and Paley bone and functional criteria. SPSS 24.0 software was used to analyze the data.Results:Eleven patients were followed up for 8 to 31 months (average 23.2 months). All patients achieved bone healing and the infection was eradicated with no sign of recurrence. The mean length of defect was (8.1±1.6) cm, mean resorption time of calcium sulphate was (6.6±2.6) months, bone transport time was (11.4±2.8) weeks, external fixation time was (4.7±1.2) months, external fixation index was (0.58±0.07) month/cm and full weight bearing time was (6.1±1.4) months. The complication rate was 36.4% including deep vein thrombosis, delayed union of the docking site, pin tract infection and sterile draining of the wound. Paley bone evaluation results were excellent and good in 10 patients (90.9%) and functional results were excellent and good in 11 patients (100%).Conclusion:Tibial bone transport over an intramedullary nail in combination with antibiotic-loaded calcium sulphate is a safe, reliable and successful method for segmental bone defect and eradication of infection which reduces external fixation time and complication rate, allows patients perform weight bearing and return to daily life earlier.