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INITIAL EVALUATION OF THE RESULTS OF OSTEOTOMY 
WITH INTRAMEDULLARY FIXATION FOR BOTH LOWER LIMBS 
IN OSTEOGENESIS IMPERFECTA PATIENTS 
AT 7A MILITARY HOSPITAL 
 Tran Quoc Doanh1; Pham Dang Ninh2; Luong Dinh Lam3 
SUMMARY 
Objectives: To evaluate the effect of osteotomy with intramedullary fixation in osteogenesis 
imperfecta. Subjects and methods: 33 patients were treated by osteotomy with intramedullary 
fixation in lower limbs. Results: 47 operations, 53 sites of surgery, mean operation time 85 ± 8 
minutes. Follow-up: In the first year, 44/44 axial of limbs were aligned, in the second year 6/39 
patients developed nonaligned axial of limbs, but without indication of surgery, in the third year, 
5/20 cases developed deformity of nail. Osteotomy with 2 intramedullary nails fixation is 
effective in lengthening lower limbs. Good outcome was obtained postoperatively, recurrent 
fracture was not recorded. Conclusions: Osteotomy with intramedullary fixation in 33 patients 
obtained good outcome. This is a safe procedure. 
* Keywords: Osteogensis imperfecta; Intramedullary nail. 
INTRODUCTION 
Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a 
disorder of bone fragility chiefly caused 
by mutations in the COL1A1 and 
COL1A2 genes that encode type I 
procollagen. Because OI is a genetic 
condition, it has no cure [4]. Cyclic 
administration of intravenous pamidronate 
reduces pain and increases bone mineral 
density, however the incidence of fracture 
is still high [2]. 
So surgical treatment is the main 
option for OI. The aim of surgery is to 
correct the deformity, increase the strength 
of bones and reduce the incidence of 
fracture. The technique of multiple 
osteotomy with intramedullary fixation is 
safe and effective. This technique was 
introduced by Sofield - Millar. 
Bailey-Dubow [4] technique has gained 
significant improvement with intramedullary 
nails in both proximal and distal long bone. 
Recently, by the combination with C-arm, 
this technique can be done minimal invasively. 
1 7A Military Hospital 
2 103 Military Hospital 
3 Choray Hospital 
Corresponding author: Tran Quoc Doanh (
[email protected]) 
 Date received: 11/10/2018 
 Date accepted: 03/12/2018 
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SUBJECTS AND METHODS 
1. Subjects. 
33 OI patients underwent surgical 
treatment at 7A Military Hospital, from 
January 2012 to December 2016. 
* Inclusion criteria: 
- Patient was diagnosed with OI based 
on Neish A.S Winalski (1995) [1], Pattekar 
M.A (2003) [1] and Sillence (1979) [3]. 
- Indication of surgical intervention: 
+ Deformity of extremity or fracture. 
+ > 2 years old, unable to ambulate. 
+ Intervention to reduce incidence of 
fracture. 
+ Bowing angle > 100, legs discrepancy 
makes it difficult to walk. 
+ The illness makes patient depressed 
and hopeless and needs to be operated. 
2. Methods. 
- Research design: Clinical trial of 
surgical intervention. 
- Technique of procedure: Multiple 
osteotomy and intramedullary fixation 
(using Kirschner, Rush nails) according to 
Topouchian [5]. 
- Data analysis: Using SPSS 22.0 
software. 
* Procedure technique: 
- Anesthesia: General anesthesia (inhaled 
anesthesia). 
- Technique details: 
+ Femur: There are 2 situations. 
The first situation: With moderately 
deformed femur or only angular distortion, 
broad canal bone, almost normal human 
size, not flat in the posterior direction. Drill 
the intramedullary canal through top of 
greater trochanter, introduce the first nail 
under guiding of C-arm. When the nail is 
stuck in angulated point, expose the bone 
and oteotomy then continute advancing 
the nail until it touches the distal femur. 
Retreat the nail to the last angulated 
point, cut the femur in this location, 
introduce the second nail retrogrately, 
advance the first nail to the distal part of 
femur, then advace the second nail, 
measure the length of femur to cut the 
nails appropriately. 
The second situation: The femur is 
small, AP diameter is small, the canal is 
not visible under C-arm guiding, nailing is 
difficult: 
Cut the femur in the location of being 
stuck, do osteotomy to correct the axial, 
create canal in this part, then introduce 
the nail. With very narrow canal bone, we 
use only one nail. 
Tibia: Similar technique is used, the 
entry point is just posterior the insertion of 
pattela tendon. 
* Data collection: Data was collected 
perioperatively. The follow-up was 
36 months. 
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
We operated on 33 patients (from 2 to 33 years old), with 47 operations and 53 sites 
of surgery. 
Table 1: The duration of operations (n = 33). 
Location n Mean SD Min Max 
 Right femur 14 83.93 7.39 70.0 90.0 
 Left femur 20 85.00 7.78 70.0 100.0 
 Right tibia 9 86.67 6.61 75.0 90.0 
 Left tibia 10 86.00 10.49 75.0 110.0 
 Total 53 85.19 7.90 70.0 110.0 
Mean of sugery duration was 85.19 ± 7.9 minutes. There was no difference in the 
surgery duration between femur and tibia. This amount of time is greater than 
Chitgopkar’s (2005) in Egypt, whose average operative time was 40 minutes (range, 20 
- 72 minutes) [10]. There were no severe complications. In 1 case, the femoral cortex 
was broken during drilling that needed augmented wire, eventually had good result. 
* Complication and iatrogenic: 
There was no serious complication and iatrogenic. Bone cortex was broken in one 
case, but we used steel wire to fix the problem and the outcome was good. 
Table 2: Radiology results (after 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 months). 
After 1 
month 
After 3 
months 
After 6 
months 
After 12 
months 
After 24 
months 
After 36 
months Criteria Result 
n = 49 n = 47 n = 45 n = 44 n = 39 n = 20 
1 nail 10 9 10 9 4 3 
Aligned 
2 nails 38 38 35 35 29 12 
1 nail 0 0 0 0 4 4 
Axial of 
limb 
Nonaligned 
2 nails 1 (*) 0 0 0 2 1 
1 nail 10 9 10 9 8 7 
Normal 
2 nails 38 38 35 35 31 13 
1 nail 0 0 0 0 0 0 
Bowing 
2 nails 1 (*) 0 0 0 0 0 
1 nail 0 0 0 0 4 4 
Extruding 
2 nails 0 0 0 0 1 1 
1 nail 0 0 0 0 0 0 
Nail 
Failure 
2 nails 0 0 0 1 1 1 
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(*: 1 case of postoperative bent 
femoral intramedullary nail, later was 
augmented with plaster cast. 36-month 
outcome was good with bone healing and 
good alignment) 
Follow-up assessment after 12 months 
in all cases showed good alignment of bones 
and instruments, of which 1 exceptional 
case had bent nail, which was also 
handled properly. Follow-up assessment 
after 2 years showed 6/39 cases 
associated with re-bending bone but 
within acceptable degree and no required 
re-operation, usually associated with 
intramedullary nail penetrated bone 
cortex. 4/6 bone re-bending cases were 
from operation with 1 intramedullary nail, 
the other 2 cases were from operation 
with 2 non expanding intramedually nail. 
Follow-up assessment after 3 years in 
20 cases, there were 5 cases represented 
bending deformity, which such deformity 
existed before operation, and the degree 
did not change significantly throughout 
the years. This figure was higher 
compared with Bailey-Dubow’s study [4] 
extensible rodsmethod of Jerosch (1998) 
[9] and Rosemberg (2018) [8]. 
Table 3: Results of nails expanding (after 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 months). 
After 1 
month 
After 3 
months 
After 6 
months 
After 12 
months 
After 24 
months 
After 36 
months X-ray 
n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n(%) 
Yes 0 (0.0) 11 (30.6) 32 (91.4) 33 (89.2) 25 (86.2) 11 (84.6) 2 nails 
expanding No 37 (100.0) 25 (59.4) 3 (8.6) 4 (10.8) 4 (13.8) 2 (15.4) 
Sum 37 36 35 37 29 13 
In cases with 2 intramedullary nails, we monitored the nails expanding according to 
the growth of bones. After just 3 months, the relative expanding of nails was shown in 
11 out of 36 cases (30.56%) and 32 out of 35 cases (91.43%) after 6 months. 
Therefore, the using of 2 nails was not adverse to the growth of bones. This result was 
better compared with Tae-Joon Cho et al (2007) [6] who enhanced Sheffield rod for no 
articular exposure. 
Table 4: Postoperative length of nail expanding (after 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 months). 
Length of nail expanding 
After n 
Mean SD Maximum value Minimum value 
p 
3 months 11 0.38 0.13 0.50 0.20 
6 months 32 0.85 0.42 2.10 0.30 
12 months 33 1.79 0.80 4.00 0.50 
24 months 25 2.70 1.00 4.10 1.50 
36 months 11 3.01 1.09 5.00 1.50 
< 0.05 
The speed of nail expanding in cases with 2 intramedullary nail fixation continuously 
increased after 3 months, which had statistical significance (p < 0.05). 
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Table 5: Postoperative functional outcome. 
Preoperative 
(n = 33) 
After 1 
months 
(n = 29) 
After 3 
months 
(n = 28) 
After 6 
months 
(n = 28) 
After 12 
months 
(n = 24) 
After 24 
months 
(n = 24) 
After 36 
months 
(n = 17) Function 
n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) 
Independent sitting 13 (39.4) 22 (75.9) 5 (17.9) 1 (3.6) 1 (4.2) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 
Crawling/bottom 
shuffling 17 (51.5) 5 (17.2) 9 (32.1) 9 (32.1) 4 (16.7) 3 (12.5) 4 (23.5) 
Independent stand 1 (3.0) 0 (0.0) 1 (3.6) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 
Assisted sit 0 (0.0) 2 (6.9) 4 (14.3) 1 (3.6) 4 (16.7) 1 (4.2) 0 (0.0) 
Independent walk 1 (3.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 9 (32.1) 12 (50.0) 12 (50.0) 5 (29.4) 
Assisted walk 1 (3.0) 0 (0.0) 9 (32.1) 8 (25.6) 5 (20.8) 8 (33.3) 8 (47.1) 
There was a significant improvement in 
functions in 3rd - 6thmonth postoperation. 
Function improvement was also shown 
after 12, 24, 36 months. Preoperatively, 
most of the patients could only sit 
independently and crawl. However, after 
operation, these patients could walk 
instead. 
The result was similar to Chitgopkar’s 
(2005) [10]. Bone healling achieved 
after 6 - 14 weeks. The function also 
improved after 12, 24, 36 months. 
Preoperatively, the majority of patients 
could only sit independently and crawl 
comparing to walking posoperatively. The 
result was consistent with Georgescu’s 
(2013) [7]. 
There was a significant improvement in 
mobility in the first 3 - 6 months after 
surgery. Changes in mobility compared to 
preoperation had statistically significant 
differences with p < 0.05. Postoperative 
evaluation of 12, 24, 36 months improved 
significantly. Before the operation, the 
patient was independent sitting and 
crawling/bottom shuffling, then the patient 
was able to walk. Our results were similar 
to Georgescu’s findings (2013) [7]. 
Table 6: Posoperative bone fracture and callus formation. 
X-ray imaging 
After 1 
month 
(n = 49) 
After 3 
months 
(n = 47) 
After 6 
months 
(n = 45) 
After 12 
months 
 (n = 45) 
After 24 
months 
 (n = 37) 
After 36 
months 
 (n = 20) 
Fracture (*) 0 0 0 0 0 0 
Grade 1 49 2 1 1 0 0 
Grade 2 0 45 0 0 0 0 
Grade 3 0 0 42 0 0 0 
Callus 
No callus 0 0 1 (**) 1 (**) 0 0 
(*: Number of cases on each operated site; **: 2 patients shown non-union after 
12 months, re-operation indicated) 
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There was 1 case associated with 
delayed union (grade 1 callus) and 1 case 
with no bone healing after 6 months. After 
12 months, these 2 cases represented 
non-union and therefore were indicated 
for secondary operation. Accordingly, the 
number of secondary operation was low 
with only 2/49 cases (4.08%). This result 
was higher compared with Jerosch’s (1998) 
[9], Tae-Joon Cho’s findings (2007) [6]. 
CONCLUSION 
Treating osteogenesis imperfecta with 
operation has brought effective results. 
Our trial on 33 patients suggest that it is 
safe and effective to perform deformity 
correction operation. Follow-up assessment 
after 36 months shows good result in 
bone alignment and re-fracture number. 
Especially 2 intramedullary nail fixation 
guarantees good alignment in both bone 
and nail, and postoperative nail expanding 
feature is advisable for the growth of 
chidren’s bones. 
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