Telescopic mating technique for bulk allograft reconstruction

Bulk allograft reconstruction plays an important role in limb-salvage reconstructive surgery but is complicated by nonunion in up to one-third of cases. Because allograft-host healing is mediated via creeping substitution, intimate bone contact is desirable. Intraoperative assessment and optimization of the allograft-host junction site using a conventional transverse osteotomy is challenging and may result in slight gapping. Speculatively, this may result in longer healing times and may contribute to the high rate of nonunion. Minimizing the nonunion rate and time to union are of value. This article describes the telescopic mating technique, which allows for substantially greater bone contact across the allograft-host junction site.