OBJECTIVES

Bone transport is a technique used to treat large bone intercalary defect. A osteotomized bone segment is gradually transported by slow intermittent traction across the defect until being compressed against the host bone that is named docking site. The aim of this study was to treat extensive segmental loss of the tibia by bone transport.

MATERIALS

Seven crossbreed female dogs, average of 1.0 to 5.5 years old, and body weight from 10 to 16.5 kg were used. An Ilizarov frame assembled with one proximal half-ring, one middle ring, one distal ring, and rods was used. Thirty percent of tibia and fibula in the middle and distal parts of the diaphysis were resected. The bone defect was reconstructed by bone transport using a bone segment developed by proximal subperiosteal osteotomy of the tibia. Bone transport started seven days after surgery (0.5 mm every 12 hours). Compression was applied in the docking area. The neutral fixation frame period was 14 weeks. The dogs were observed for four more weeks after fixator removal.

RESULTS

Bone transport allowed bone regeneration in the bone defect. However, complications such as intercalary segment deviation during the trajectory (2 dogs), and no consolidation (3 dogs) and nonunion (2 dogs) in the docking area were observed. During the evaluation, one month after frame removal, the functional results were considered excellent in 1, good in 1, fair in 3, and poor in 2 other dogs.

CONCLUSION

It was possible to conclude that bone transport is useful for the treatment of bone defect, but it is important to use debridement and cancellous bone graft the docking area to accelerate bone union.