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The use of the Taylor spatial frame in adolescent Blount’s disease: is fibular osteotomy necessary?

  • Original Clinical Article
  • Published:
Journal of Children's Orthopaedics

Abstract

Background

The standard treatment of adolescent Blount disease includes proximal tibial osteotomy and osteotomy of the fibula. Some believe that the fibula should also be fixed to prevent migration and subluxation. The purpose of the current study was to examine the results of treatment of patients with adolescent tibia vara treated by tibial osteotomy and Taylor spatial frame (TSF) without fibular osteotomy.

Methods

Correction of deformities was performed on eight patients (ten tibias) with adolescent Blount disease using TSF. The fibula was not osteotomized in any patient and was not fixed in the last five patients.

Results

All patients had precise anatomical correction of deformities and no problems related to the fibula occurred during or after correction.

Conclusion

Based on our experience we believe that placement of the origin at the level of the proximal tibial fibular joint in conjunction with external fixation eliminates the need for fibular osteotomy and the potential morbidity of this procedure in patients with mild to moderate tibia vara.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. J. Charles Taylor for permission to use illustrations from his website. We also thank Mrs. M. Perlmutter for her help in the preparation of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pediatric Orthopedics Unit, Rambam Health Care Campus, and Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 9602, 31096, Haifa, Israel

    Mark Eidelman, Viktor Bialik & Alexander Katzman

Authors
  1. Mark Eidelman
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  2. Viktor Bialik
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  3. Alexander Katzman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Eidelman.

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Eidelman, M., Bialik, V. & Katzman, A. The use of the Taylor spatial frame in adolescent Blount’s disease: is fibular osteotomy necessary?. J Child Orthop 2, 199–204 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11832-008-0099-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11832-008-0099-8

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