A Case of Reconstruction of a Type IIIc Open Tibial Fracture with Bone Loss and Warm Ischemia Time of 13 Hours: Quality of Life and Review of the Literature

Patient: Male, 45-year-old Final Diagnosis: Open tibia fracture with bone loss Symptoms: Numbness • pain • pulseness Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Orthopedics and Traumatology • Plastic Surgery OBJECTIVE: Management of emergency care BACKGROUND: The management of open Gustilo IIIC fractures can be challenging even for experienced orthopedic surgeons. The decision between limb salvage and amputation is extremely difficult and the scoring systems do not seem to affect it significantly. Although ischemic time has been proven to be a major factor, attempts at reconstruction of limbs with ischemic time over 6 hours have been made in past decades. A simultaneous management of skeletal, soft-tissues, and vascular injury should be performed. This requires an orthoplastic surgeon who is capable of doing all the necessary operations by him/herself with hand-surgery and microsurgery expertise. CASE REPORT: We present a case of a 49-year-old man with a type IIIC open tibial fracture with bone loss and warm ischemia time of 13 hours, who underwent revascularization and reconstruction with good radiological and functional results after a follow-up of 3 years. A few similar cases have been presented in the literature but none of them had a combination of bone loss, severe soft tissue injury, and complete vascular disruption after a crush injury. CONCLUSIONS: The treatment of type IIIC open fractures of the tibia can be a demanding and time-consuming process. Detailed information about the necessity of multiple surgical interventions must be explained and fully understood by the patient in order to have realistic expectations.