Transfer of vascularized grafts of iliac bone to the extremities

Abstract

We treated sixteen patients, all of whom had a large segmental defect of bone in an extremity, with transfer of a vascularized graft of the iliac crest. Thirteen patients had an open defect that required an osteomuscular or osteocutaneous graft; the other three had a closed segmental osseous defect and the graft of the iliac crest was transferred without soft tissue. The average length of the osseous defect was seven centimeters. For the defects of the lower extremity, the average time to osseous union was 8.8 months. For the defects of the upper extremity, it was four months. Three patients had delayed union due to difficulty in positioning the graft on the tibia and maintaining circulation to the overlying skin; this led us to modify our method of transfer. In six patients, we used an osteomuscular graft and a separate skin graft instead of the osteocutaneous flap. When performing the transfers to the tibia, we tried to place the graft in the coronal plane against the fibula for better alignment and stability. For the transfers to the distal part of the forearm, we did a double microvascular anastomosis.