Masquelet's technique in management of large bone defects in diaphyseal fractures- case reports

We present two difficult cases with bone defects after open injuries associated with long bone fractures in this paper, one in distal femur and another is an open and infected tibia fracture. Instead of the tedious and demanding treatment options like Ilizarov, a new technique described by Masquelet. It uses bone cement as a spacer to fill the cavity to form pseudo-membrane around it and in the second stage autologous cancellous bone graft fills the gap of even more than 5 cm, to achieve union. The membrane also secretes vascular and osteo-inductive factors to stimulate bone regeneration and also prevents resorption of the bone graft and achieves early fracture healing avoiding tedious options like bone transport in external fixator. By this two staged technique, union occurred clinically and radiologically in these two cases.