Treatment of Recalcitrant Femoral Shaft Nonunion With Medial Femoral Condyle Pedicled Autograft: Technical Trick

Nonunited fractures of the femoral shaft and distal femur are usually successfully addressed with stabilization with or without autogenous bone grafting. For the small subset of these problems that prove recalcitrant to front-line treatment, a pedicled medial femoral condyle (MFC) bone flap can provide a source of vascularized autograft with minimal donor site morbidity. The MFC has gained recent widespread adoption as a free vascularized bone transfer, and here, we present a surgical technique and retrospective analysis of patients treated with a pedicled MFC technique. This serves as a useful treatment option for these difficult problems and may be especially helpful in low resource environments or where microsurgical anastomosis is not feasible.

Automated summary

Nonunited fractures of the femoral shaft and distal femur can be successfully treated with stabilization, but for difficult cases, a pedicled medial femoral condyle (MFC) bone flap can provide vascularized autograft. This technique has gained widespread adoption and can be particularly helpful in low-resource environments or when microsurgical anastomosis is not possible.