Risk of Distal Femoral Physeal Arrest Following Intramedullary Rod Removal & Fat Grafting
Grant Recipient: Raymond Liu, MD
- Institution:
- Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH
- Presentations & Publications:
- Presentations: None, we intend to submit for POSNA and AAOS 2022.
Publications: None, we intend to submit to JPO later this year.
- Further Funding:
- None
- Additional Information:
- Research Findings
Aim #1: We recently completed data collection. Eight sheep had retrograde femoral nails implanted. After 2 months, the nails were removed and the defect was left open in four sheep and fat grafted in the other four sheep. Two sheep from each group were then allowed to grow for 3 months and two sheep from each group were allowed to grow for 5 months, and then sacrificed. Our preliminary analysis did not find any evidence of difference in femoral lengths in either the removal group or the removal + fat graft group. This suggests that a retrograde femoral nail through an open distal femoral physis can be removed without the need to place a fat graft which significantly simplifies the procedure and makes this overall treatment plan a more viable option in low and middle income countries with limited resources. Our research fellow still needs to perform final measurements based on digital images of the operative and control femora.
Aim #2: We have processed the bony specimens and they are currently with our pathology colleagues for slide preparation and histologic analysis.
