Open AccessVascularised knee joint transplantation in man: the first two years experience
Author(s) -
Kirschner Martin H.,
Brauns Lars,
Gonschorek Oliver,
Bühren Volker,
Hofmann Gunther O.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
european journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1741-9271
pISSN - 1102-4151
DOI - 10.1080/110241500750009186
Subject(s) - medicine , knee joint , surgery , transplantation , knee surgery , general surgery , osteoarthritis , pathology , alternative medicine
Objective: To describe our early experience with a new technique for restoring destroyed knee joints to give reasonable functional results. Design: Observational clinical trial. Setting: Level‐1‐Trauma centre, Germany. Subjects: 5 patients with large bone defects of the knee and loss of the extensor apparatus caused either by serious injury alone, or infection after serious injury. Interventions: Transplantation of fresh and perfused knee joints with a vascular pedicle from multiorgan donors under immunosuppression. Main outcome and measures: Ability to walk, need to remove one transplanted joint. Results: Four patients are able to walk, the range of movement being from 50°‐120°. The first patient additionally had to be provided with a total knee joint arthroplasty. In the third patient the graft became infected and had to be removed. She finally had an arthrodesis and bone lengthening by the Ilizarov technique. Conclusions: Transplantation of the knee joint may be an alternative to bone lengthening or amputation for patients with total loss of the extensor apparatus. Copyright © 2000 Taylor and Francis Ltd.