1. Replacement of the distal femur and proximal tibia with frozen allografts.
- Author
-
Zatsepin ST and Burdygin VN
- Subjects
- Femoral Neoplasms diagnostic imaging, Fracture Fixation, Intramedullary, Humans, Neoplasm Metastasis, Neoplasm Recurrence, Local, Osteoarthritis etiology, Postoperative Complications etiology, Radiography, Tibia diagnostic imaging, Transplantation, Homologous methods, Treatment Failure, Bone Neoplasms surgery, Bone Transplantation methods, Femoral Neoplasms surgery, Tibia surgery
- Abstract
Eighty-eight osteoarticular distal femoral allografts and 68 proximal tibial allografts have been transplanted at the authors' institution from 1958 to 1970. These allografts were used in limb-sparing operations performed after the diagnosis of benign or malignant tumors. All allografts were preserved by freezing to -70 degrees or -30 degrees. Allograft fixation technique depended either on press fitting of the allograft host junction or on quadrangular titanium intramedullary rods. The most prevalent long-term complication was the time-dependent development of destructive arthrosis. After excluding patients with tumor failures (8.3%) and those with failures caused by infections, amputations, or allograft removal without subsequent replacement (5%), 135 patients remained. In this group of patients, after treatment of complications, good or excellent results were obtained in 31% of patients, and fair results in 45% of patients. In the latter group, significant limitation of knee motion existed. The remainder (24%) had either complete limitation of knee motion or had to rely on orthopaedic bracing.
- Published
- 1994