Corrective Osteotomy

The correction of congenital and acquired incorrect leg positioning is particularly important in the case of incipient osteoarthritis as it can significantly slow down the wearing of a knee joint and can avoid premature joint replacement surgery. The decision to carry out such an operation is not an easy one for most patients as it is associated with sectioning a healthy bone.

The course of treatment
Corrective surgery requires careful planning based on X-rays or computer-tomography images. Among other things, the desired degree of correction must be set. This is because sometimes an ‘overcorrection’ is necessary in order to relieve the damaged joint surfaces of the inside knee, e.g. pronounced bow legs have to be transformed into a slight ‘knock knees’ situation. During the operation, we have to cut through the bone, correct the incorrect position accurately and fix the bone with screw and plate systems into the desired position. Modern surgical techniques make it possible to stabilise the divided bone in such a way that the leg can be stressed again within a few days. In the case of an incorrect position on both sides, the osteotomy does not occur at the same time, as until it has fully recovered, the divided bone can only be partly stressed.