LAUSR

OBJECTIVES To compare bone transport through induced membrane (BTM) and conventional bone transport (BT) regarding docking site union and infection recurrence in management of infected long bone defects. DESIGN prospective randomized controlled study. SETTING tertiary level center. PARTICIPANTS 30 patients with infected non-united long bone fractures of lower limbs. INTERVENTION 15 patients treated by BTM in group (A) and 15 patients treated by BT in group (B). OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS External fixation time (EFT), External fixation index (EFI), Docking time (DT). Bone and functional outcomes evaluated by the Association for the Study and Application of the Method of Ilizarov (ASAMI) scoring system. Postoperative complications evaluated according to Paley's classification. RESULTS The mean docking time (DT) was significantly lower in BTM group in comparison to BT group (3.6 ± 0.82 months vs 4.8 ± 0.86 months respectively; P value 0.001). Docking site non-union and infection recurrence were significantly lower in BTM group in comparison to BT group (0% vs 40%; P value 0.02 and 0% vs 33.3%; P value 0.04 respectively) with no significant difference in EFI (P value 0.08). CONCLUSION This is the first prospective randomized controlled study comparing BTM and BT techniques showing that BTM had significantly faster docking site union, lower incidence of postoperative complications including docking site non-union and infection recurrence rates and lower number of additional procedures needed at the expense of two staged operation in comparison to BT.