Infected tibial nonunion. Good results after open cancellous bone grafting in 37 cases.

We treated 37 infected tibial shaft nonunions by debridement followed by open autogenous cancellous bone grafting in a 2-stage procedure. Additional surgery was done in 21 fractures including second debridement before bone grafting and/or a second limited bone grafting and/or a split-thickness skin grafting. All fractures healed after an average of 11 (8-16) months. During 2 years follow-up there were no recurrences of the infection. Two cases of early refracture occurred, both healed following new bone grafting.