Allen T. Bishop

The arterial anatomy of the medial femoral condyle and its clinical implications.

The success of vascularized bone grafts from the medial femoral condyle in various clinical applications has sparked renewed interest in the microvascular anatomy of this region. This study describes the arterial supply of the distal medial femoral condyle and its implications in harvesting vascularized bone grafts. The location, branching pattern, internal diameter, and distribution of perforators of the descending genicular artery and superior medial genicular artery in 19 fresh cadaveric lower limbs were recorded. The descending genicular artery was present in 89% and the superior medial genicular artery was present in 100% of specimens with average distances proximal to the articular surface of 13.7u2009cm and 5.2u2009cm, respectively. The average number of perforating vessels was greatest in the posterior distal quadrant of the condyle. The blood supply of the medial femoral condyle is plentiful and consistent making it a useful source for free vascularized bone grafts.

Vascularized medial femoral condyle graft for thumb metacarpal reconstruction: case report.

The vascularized medial femoral condyle bone graft has many clinical applications. It can be harvested as a thin, pliable, corticoperiosteal graft and wrapped around recalcitrant nonunions in long bones to achieve osseous union. It can also be harvested as a small, structural, corticocancellous graft and used to treat small defects such as scaphoid avascular nonunion. We present a case of thumb metacarpal osteomyelitis resulting in a large segmental osseous defect. Reconstruction was performed using a large, structural, vascularized bone graft from the medial femoral condyle.