Rotationplasty

Under a reverse plastic is meant as an alternative to full amputation in which a body part has a specific job for which he is not actually provided. This surgical technique was developed in the 1920s by the physician Joseph Borggreve as a treatment option by accident and later named after him.

Borggreve Rotationplasty

( Would go with the active control and stabilization through the knee joint lost ) As an alternative to a complete amputation at the thigh due to disease of the knee or thigh (eg, osteosarcoma ), serves as the Borggreve Rotationplasty. Here the lower leg with the foot is rotated by 180 ° in the thigh fixed. The ankle joint is set at the level of the existing knee joint so that it takes on the task of the diseased knee.

Thus increased in comparison to the full- amputation mobility and stability is obtained, which is about equal to a lower leg amputation. Above all, the brain then has to be trained on the new control of the limbs, because you now moves the ankle of the foot, now the prosthetic restoration (ie the replacement of the lower leg and foot) moves ( by the foot -controlled). After appropriate training, a life with very few restrictions is possible; after several years of running training is ideally even for trained therapists hardly a difference in the gait pattern can be seen.

In addition occur when compared to a normal amputation usually no phantom pain as the limb is not amputated at the end.

A reversal of plastic can be performed only when a condition generally, since extensive planning and preliminary investigations are needed that can not be realized in time as in an accident. In addition, such an extensive operation (duration 6-10 hours ) is possible only by a few experts to carry out and in medically advanced countries, since an increased risk of infection.

The Borggreve Rotationplasty been performed worldwide only a few hundred times. Long after its development, this method was not used until the mid- 1980s. Then Salzer (Vienna), Gersthof and Becker ( Volmarstein ) and Winkelmann ( Dusseldorf ) performed this surgery in the treatment of bone tumor patients again and successfully in a few dozen cases. Main indications exist today in children, in which an endoprosthesis does not come into question because of age, or patients in whom an endoprosthesis - eg an infection - had to be expanded.