role of bridging callus in the management of atrophic nonunion of long bones fractures

ABSTRACT

Twenty four patients with established atrophic nounited fractures of long bone with a gap less than 1 cm treated by application of autogenous cancellous bone graft and bridging device without interference of fibrous union. The femur was involved in 10 cases, the tibia in 6, the humerus in 5 and radius and ulna in 3 cases. The patients were 17 males and 7 females with a mean age of 40 years. At a mean follow up of 13 months, 23 patients got union in an average of 4 months. 12 patients were rated as excellent, 10 patients were rated as good and 2 patients rate as poor result in regard to the functional outcome.This suggest that in the presence of a well vasculaized envelope of muscles the application of outogenous cancellous bone graft in conjunction with bridging device represents a good alternative to a more demanding surgical techniques needed to achieve union