title: Delayed- and non-union following opening wedge high tibial osteotomy: surgeons' results from 182 completed cases.
abstract: Opening wedge high tibial osteotomy (OWHTO) is a recently described procedure for medial compartment arthritis of the knee in the active, younger population. Despite having a number of advantages over the traditional closing wedge high tibial osteotomy (CWHTO) a potential complication of OWHTO is a high rate of delayed- and non-union. This study reports the occurrence of delayed- and non-union following OWHTO for medial compartment arthritis of the knee. Questionnaires were sent to all current members of the Australian Knee Society (n=45), a special interest group of the Australian Orthopaedic Group. Surgeons were asked primarily to indicate how many OWHTOs they had performed, and how many of these had progressed to union, delayed-union and non-union. All 45 questionnaires were returned, with 21 surgeons (47%) performing OWHTOs. A total of 188 OWHTO cases were reported, of which 182 were complete. Of these complete cases 167 (91.8%) were classed as united, 12 (6.6%) delay-united and 3 (1.6%) non-united. The results of this study demonstrate that the rate of delayed- and non-union following OWHTO for medial compartment arthritis of the knee is relatively low and comparable to that reported for traditional CWHTO.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health, Exercise and Sports Medicine, School of Physiotherapy, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Stuart J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Warden
authors.forename: Hayden G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Kay M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Crossley
authors.forename: Peter D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Brukner
authors.forename: Kim L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Bennell
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D001860:Bone Plates; D006801:Humans; D007085:Ilium / Q000637:transplantation; D007593:Joint Instability / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000601:surgery; D010027:Osteotomy / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011184:Postoperative Period; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013977:Tibia / Q000601:surgery; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology*