Treatment of chronic osteomyelitis of the lower extremity using free flap transfer.

Between 1987 and 1995, 25 patients with chronic osteomyelitis of the lower extremity were treated by transfer of muscle or musculocutaneous flap. The subsequent follow-up extended over more than three years. Five patients developed a recurrence. Two were reoperated on and healed completely; in two an amputation had to be performed; and in one the infection persists. Recurrence occurred mainly in patients in whom the bone cavity could not be filled completely with muscle.