Rotationplasty - Children's Hospital Boston

The eighth most common cancer in children, osteosarcoma is still a rarity, affecting only about 600 children per year in the United States. The location this aggressive bone tumor is usually found is just above the knee.

Children's Hospital Boston orthopedic surgeon Mark Gebhardt, MD, explains the options to families: an allograft, an implant made of metal or donated bone, or a type of partial amputation known as a rotationplasty.

A rotationplasty is a surgical procedure that is both elegantly simple and medically unusual. "You're basically amputating the part with the tumor except for the nerves," explains Gebhardt, "then you take the upper end of the shinbone and you hook it up to the thighbone. In the process of doing that you rotate it 180 degrees so the ankle becomes adjacent to the opposite knee." The result is a new "knee" formed by the rotated ankle and foot.

For more info on rotationplasty please visit:
http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site1077/mainpageS1077P0.html

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