i had an accident in july of last year resulting of a compound fracture of fibea & tibea where the bone came through my leg i had plastic surgery to replace skin & have a fixator since accident used exogen therapy to try & stimulate bones to heal without success i'm now facing a bone graft anyone got feedback on this procedure or poss alternatives?

-- philip haig (bergsuk@aol.com), February 06, 2003

Answers

You have what is called a nonunion. There are a variety of ways to treat the nonunion, one is to refix the fracture by opening it up and applying a plate with compression across the fracture zone. Another is to refix the fracture while adding bone graft or stem cells, and finally there is what is called distraction Osteogenesis which involves putting a special type of frame on and pushing the bones together and then pulling them apart. The ins and outs of these various procedures depend on what the x-rays and your leg look like. It would be best discussed with someone competent to perform them in clinical consultation.

-- Marc W. Hungerford, M.D. (mhunger@jhmi.edu), March 27, 2003.