BONE TRANSPORT USING THE “MONORAIL” TECHNIQUE: PATIENT OUTCOME AND COMPLICATIONS.

Bone transport/limb lengthening with circular external fixation has been associated with a prolonged period of time in the frame and a significant major complication rate following frame removal. We examined the results of bone transport in fifty-one limbs using the “monorail” technique and found a dramatically improved lengthening index (24.5 days/cm. – time in frame /cm. of length gained) and an absence of refracture or angulatory deformity following fixator removal. This technique is our treatment of choice for limb lengthening/bone transport. We sought to determine patient oriented outcome and complication rates following b one transport using an external fixator placed over an intramedullary nail (the “monorail” technique). Bone transport using the monorail technique is associated with a dramatically improved lengthening index and a lower major complication rate than traditional ring fixator methods. Patient satisfaction with the procedure was high. Our study confirms the significant advantages of the monorail technique for bone transport/limb lengthening. The time in the fixator is dramatically reduced, and complications associated with earlier techniques such as angulatory deformity or refracture were not seen. We identified forty-nine patients (fifty-one limbs) who had undergone bone transport using the monorail technique (external fixator placed over an intramedullary nail). There were thirty-five men and fourteen women with a mean age of thirty-five years (range 17–50). Pre-operative diagnoses included post traumatic length discrepancy/bone defect (forty-one), congenital short stature (six) and other (four). All patients had a unilateral fixator placed over an implanted intramedullary nail. Once length correction was achieved, the fixator was removed and the nail “locked”. The mean amount of lengthening was 5.5 cm. (range 2 – 18 cm.). The lengthening index was 24.5 days /cm. (duration of external fixation/cm. bone length gained), with a range from ten to fifty days /cm. There were nineteen complications (thirty-seven percent): nine premature consolidations, four infected pin sites, two hardware failures, two osteomyelitis, one DVT, one nonunion. There were no refractures, angulatory deformities or cases of intramedullary sepsis.