Friday, February 2, 2007
11964

Vascularized radius bone flap based upon the radial artery for the treatment of non-union scaphoid fractures

Keith Hurvitz, MD, Michael P. McConnell, MD, Kevin A. Brenner, MD, Gregory R. D. Evans, MD, Mark Kobayashi, MD, Raffi Karamanoukian, MD, and Donald Bittner, MD.

Fractures of the scaphoid bone are inherently susceptible to non-union healing. The blood supply to the bone can become disrupted following trauma and result in a chronically unstable fracture site. This in turn can be the source of long standing wrist pain and compromised function. We wish to describe our experience with scaphoid non-union reconstruction using a reverse vascularized radius bone flap based upon the radial artery. We have successfully performed this reverse flow pedicle flap procedure on 3 patients with scaphoid non-union fractures. No peri-operative complications have been encountered. Post-operatively all patients have displayed clinical and radiographic evidence of bony union across the fracture sites.