Intramedullary fixation for congenital pseudarthrosis of the tibia.
Eighteen consecutively seen patients who had a congenital pseudarthrosis of the tibia were treated operatively. The mean age when the patients were first seen was four years. Seventeen previous procedures had failed: six patients had had one previous procedure; three, two previous procedures; and one, five previous procedures. At an average follow-up interval of ten years (range, three to nineteen years), healing with re-formation of the medullary canal was seen in thirteen of the eighteen tibiae, including one tibia that had united after a Boyd amputation. Five patients did not have healing of the tibia: four of them had a below-the-knee amputation, and one declined additional treatment. The average residual angulation was 12 degrees in the sagittal plane and 5 degrees in the coronal plane. Union occurred in ten of the thirteen patients who had been managed with intramedullary fixation. Of these thirteen, eight had been managed with intramedullary fixation, bone-grafting, and implantation of an electrical stimulator, and seven of them had union. Five of the thirteen patients had been managed with intramedullary fixation and bone-grafting, and three of them had union. Union occurred in one of two patients who had been managed with vascularized free fibular transfer, one who had been managed with delayed bone-grafting, and one who had been managed with a Boyd amputation. Four of the five patients who did not have union were subsequently managed with a below-the-knee amputation, and one patient refused additional treatment.