Tibial Turn-up for Long Distal Femoral Bone Loss

Since 1990, seven patients have been treated by the authors with the tibial turn-up procedure. They have ranged in age from 8 to 37 years; four were skeletally mature adults and three were children. All seven patients were faced with a clinical situation that required surgical removal of a long portion of their affected distal femur. Three of the adult patients initially were treated for osteosarcoma with long distal femoral resections and allograft arthrodesis of the knee. The allografts ultimately failed, two because of aseptic failure and one because of infection. One patient required distal femoral removal for chronic osteomyelitis and pathologic fracture. Of the three children who were treated, two had turn-ups after long resection of the distal femur for bone malignancy, and one had a secondary turn-up after failure of a long distal femoral endoprosthesis. The technique uses the normal ipsilateral tibia as a vascularized pedicle graft to restore femoral length. The ultimate result, even after very high above knee resection, is a long above knee amputation stump. The followup of the patients in the current study ranged from 2 to 8 years. All patients achieved healing and were able to wear above knee prostheses. The tibial turn-up is an effective procedure that results in a long functional above knee amputation stump even after very high above knee resections.