OBJECTIVETo observe the effectiveness of percutaneous bone marrow grafting for treatment of fractures nonunion.

METHODSFrom June 2001 to December 2007, 29 consecutive cases of fractures nonunion were treated with percutaneous autologous bone marrow grafting included 20 males and 9 females, ranging in age from 20 to 71 years, with an average of 40 years. All the cases were traumatic fractures involving 13 of tibia, 10 of femur, 3 of humerus, 2 of ulna, 1 of radius, 11 cases of them were open fractures. All the cases were performed internal or external fixation before marrow grafting, intramedullary pin in 15 cases, plate in 12 cases, external fixator in 2 cases. The time from injury to therapy were from 6 to 12 months, with an average of 8.5 months. The type of nonunion included atrophic in 26 cases,hypertrophic in 3 cases. All the cases were performed 3 times injection, the interval was 1 month. According to the different fracture, the amount of bone marrow was from 6 to 15 ml.

RESULTSAll the 29 cases were followed-up for from 5 to 22 months with an average of 14 months. Four of them were not observed obvious callus after 3 months from the 3rd injection, judged unsuccessful therapy, changed to perform autologous bone grafting (3 of them re-internal fixation), the follow-up ended. The other 25 cases obtained bone union during 3 to 8 months with an average of 4.5 months, the follow-up ended at the time of internal fixation removal.

CONCLUSIONPercutaneous autologous bone marrow grafting is an effective, easy and economic therapy for fracture nonunion. But stable internal or external fixation is the premise. Excessive bone defect, the gap more than 5 mm and mal-align requiring rectification is not appropriate for this therapy.