Abstracts Posters SICOT-SOF meeting Gothenburg 2010 _2_

Poster
Topic: General Orthopaedics
Abstract number: 25908
TIBIAL NON-UNION IN A PATIENT WITH OSTEOPETROSIS – CASE REPORT
Pedro AMARAL, Luis PINHEIRO, Thiago AGUIAR, Luis SOARES, Fernando
CARNEIRO
Hospital de Ponta Delgada - Açores, Ponta Delgada (PORTUGAL)
Background: Osteopetrosis was first described in 1904 by the German radiologist
Albers-Schonberg. It is a heritable disorder characterized by a defective osteoclast
resorption leading to hard and brittle bone. The treatment of fractures in these
patients presents various difficulties. The complications of these fractures are a really
challenge for Orthopaedic surgeon. Case Report: The authors present a case report
of a female patient, 62 years old, suffering from osteopetrosis disease, with an eight
years evolution tibial non-union. She presented an antecurvatum (65º) and varum
(30º) deformity The previous medical history included proximal femur fracture
bilaterally, treated surgically. The patient was submitted to debridement of the nonunion
focus, fibular subtraction osteotomy and tibial fixation with compression plate.
The postoperative occurred without complications and the patient started partial
weight bearing 6 weeks after the surgery. It was achieved a good alignment of the
leg and both clinic and radiographic union occurred in the 6th month follow-up.
Discussion: The surgical treatment of patients with osteopetrosis disease is
complicated by the difficulty of working with extremely hard, brittle, marble bone.
Intramedullary fixation provides greater stability with few complications and is
recommended for patients with repeated fractures, long bone deformity and failed
load bearing implants.In this case it was considered internal fixation with a
compression plate due to the need of debridement of the non-union focus and
correction of the angular deformity, associated to complete medullary canal
obliteration. The result accomplished was good.
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