Reconstructive surgery for thumb osteomyelitis: a new way of remodelling the vascularized medial femoral condyle flap. A case report.

Background: Authors propose a technical innovation for the remodelling of the medial femoral condyle flap (MFCF) for reconstruction of small to medium bone defects performed after the surgical treatment of a thumb osteomyelitis.

Materials And Methods: A 45 year old male had thumb proximal phalanx osteomyelitis after a crush trauma of the dominant right hand and multiple previous unsuccessful surgical attempts in other hospitals. In our centre he underwent to a two stage surgical treatment of the infection through bone and soft tissue reconstruction with a MFCF shaped in a new three dimensional (3D) approach with multiple osteotomies.

Results: Bone union was achieved after 30 days with a stable thumb reconstruction and good soft tissue healing. No vascular complication occurred after surgery. There was no sign of infection recurrence.

Conclusions: MFCF offers a variety of options for its 3 D shaping which make it a good solution in hand surgery reconstructions after surgical excision of small and medium size bony segments.