Osteotomy

The procedure of osteotomy means that a wedge is taken from (or inserted into) the femur (thigh bone) or tibia (shinbone) to realign the bones and normalise the forces through them.

It is possible to tackle the effects of the arthritis rather than the arthritis itself by realigning the bow legs or knock knees which may result from destruction on one side of the joint, thus redistributing the forces through the arthritic area.

There are 3 essentially different types of osteotomy:

• Wedge osteotomy (opening or closing wedge), eg high tibial osteotomy for bow legs (varus deformity).
• Derotational osteotomy, eg for femoral or tibial rotation abnormalities, eg femoral anteversion
• Displacement osteotomy, eg T.T.T. (tibial tuberosity transfer)