Distal femoral osteotomy: Short-term deformity solution needs long-term follow-up

Orthopedics Today—May 1, 2017

Orthopedics Today featured S. Robert Rozbruch, MD, chief of the Limb Lengthening and Complex Reconstruction service at HSS, in the print cover story about distal femoral osteotomy. A distal femoral osteotomy is a surgical procedure that is performed to correct a knee deformity. According to Dr. Rozbruch, the procedure is also used to correct a growth plate injury or fix a fracture that has not healed in the right position.

Dr. Rozbruch said that when kids get injured, "they will damage the growth plate [and] because of that, the bone will be short and it will be crooked. In a case like that, we will do a distal femoral osteotomy to correct deformity."

"Lengthening can be done simultaneously with the deformity correction and that is all done through the same osteotomy, in most cases," he added.

Dr. Rozbruch noted that future research should be performed to explore whether a lengthening rod used for the same indications can be placed through the patient’s growth plate without damaging it. Additionally, he believes research should be done to predict the rate of recurrence of deformity after distal femoral osteotomy in a skeletally immature patient.

Read the full article at healio.com. This appeared in the May 2017 print edition.