Techniques of plastic surgery can be applied to the treatment of certain types of osteomyelitic wounds. Success in producing healing by free skin-grafting has been considerable. Later stages of reconstruction in these instances have succeeded, often in proportion to the operator's facility in performing pedicle skin transplants. In replacing free skin grafts with pedicles in this group of patients, dead space presents a major problem. Contrary to the experience of others, attempts at Ashford General Hospital to fill such cavities with iliac-bone chips have resulted in a high proportion of infection; and other filling materials have been used, with varied success.