Arthrodesis of knee joint by vascularized fibular graft.

Knee arthrodesis has been performed in 17 patients using vascularized fibular graft (VFG); 15 of them could be followed more than 1 year. Twelve were bone defect following tumor resection, two were traumatic bone defect, and one was intractable traumatic non-union. Three types of graft were performed; single VGF as supplement (Type I) in 5 cases, double VFG for femoral defect (Type II) in 8 cases, and double VFG for tibial defect (Type III) in 4 cases. Bone union was achieved in all cases except one. The average time to primary bone union was 4.7 months. Hypertrophy of the graft was observed significantly in some of Type II and in all of Type III. VGF is a useful method for knee fusion in patients with a large bone defect or with an intractable non-union.