Objective To investigate the surgical treatment method and the curative effect of tibial nonunion with superficial peroneal vascular fascia pedicel tibiofibular periosteal flap. Methods From January 1996 to December 2008, 18 cases of tibial nonunion were treated with superficial peroneal vascular fascia pedicel tibiofibular periosteal flap, interlockingintramedullary nail ing and cancellous bone graft of distal tibial. There were 14 males and 4 females, with an average age of 32.5 years old (range, 24-67 years old). Fracture site was middle in 10 cases and distal in 8 cases. Primary injury cause included 12 cases of traffic accident and 6 cases of bruise. The tibial nonunion reasons were manual reduction and plaster immobil ization in 8 cases, small spl int immobil ization in 4 cases, intramedullary nail fixation in 2 cases (no bone graft), plate fixation in 4 cases (including 3 cases of plate fixation and free il iac bone graft). Nonunion occurred after the first surgery. The time from nonunion to operation was 8 to 16 months, with an average of 10.5 months. The size of periosteal flap was 7 cm × 5 cm and distal tibial cancellous bone graft volume was 5-10 g. Results All incision achieved heal ing by first intention after operation without flap necrosis and infection. All patients were followed up 6-36 months with an average of 20.8 months. All tibial nonunion healed 5-7 months after operation. According to Johner-Wruh scoring, the results were excellent in 14 cases, good in 3 cases, and fair in 1 case; the excellent and good rate was 94.4%. Conclusion Superficial peroneal vascular tibiofibularfascia pedicel tibiofibular periosteal flap and interlocking intramedullary nail ing can attain good results in treating nonunion of tibia and fibula because of being stable internal fixation and promoting the heal ing of nonunion.
