Induced membrane technique for the treatment of congenital pseudarthrosis of the tibia: preliminary results of five cases.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the two-stage surgical technique combining induced membrane, spongy autograft and intramedullary fixation for the treatment of congenital pseudarthrosis of the tibia (CPT).

METHODS: Three boys and two girls were treated by this technique between 2003 and 2008. All patients had type IV CPT in Crawford's classification. Four of them had a limited dystrophic form, whereas one case presented an extensive tibia bone dystrophy. The average age of patients at the time of surgery was 23 months (range 10-30 months), with an average follow-up of 5.8 years (range 2.4-8.1 years).

RESULTS: Satisfactory tibial bony union was achieved in all cases at the last follow-up. Bone healing was obtained in the four limited forms after an average term of 4 months. One patient suffered from a non-displaced fracture that healed by casting in a usual period of time. The patient with an extensive dystrophic bone had to undergo a secondary inter-tibiofibular bone graft to finally achieve bone union.

CONCLUSIONS: The preliminary results show that this technique is successful in CPT. It may be used even in young children and offers a good alternative to other treatments available, avoiding external fixation and the technical difficulties of microvascular surgery.