Treatment of bone bridge formation by resection of bone bridge and filling of vascularized fat-fascia flap

Abstract

Objective To investigate the therapeutic effectiveness of filling the injury with vascularized fat-fascia flap for bone bridge formation after epiphysea defect in juvenile rabbits.Methods The distal physeal femoral epiphyseal plate injury on one side in juvenile rabbits was made by a 3.5 mm Kirschner wire,and the opposite limb served as control.Experimental animals were divided into 4 groups:group A (resecting bone bridge and filling vascularized fat-fascia flap) ; group B (resecting bone bridge and filling free fat-fascia flap) ; group C (only injury without any fillings) ; group D (only resecting bone bridge).Twenty weeks later,the difference in the femur length and knee valgus angle in four groups between the operated side and the normal side was used to evaluate the degree of femoral deformity after epiphyseal plate injury.Results Filling of the vascularized fat-fascia flap into the defects following bone bridge resection could reduce the degree of femoral deformity (P ＜ 0.01).The femur shorting length in groups A,B,C and D was (3.03 ±2.06),(4.2 ±2.43),(10.26 ±2.98),and (6.51 ±3.68) mm respectively,and the differences of valgus angles were 1.67 ± 0.76) °,(12.000 ± 1.85) °,(23.47 ± 3.02) °,and (18.38 ± 8.32) ° respectively.Conclusion Resecting bone bridge and filling of vascularized fat-fascia flap can treat bone bridge formation after epiphyseal injury,and reduce the deformities of femur after epiphyseal injury. Key words: Epiphysis plate injury; Bone bridge formation; With vascularized fat-fascia flap