Although a fracture rarely fails to unite in a healthy child, non-union
is not a rare occurrence in a child who has osteogenesis imperfecta. We
identified twelve non-unions in ten patients from a population of fifty-two
patients who had osteogenesis imperfecta. The average age of these patients
when the diagnosis of non-union was made nine years, and the average age at
the time of treatment was 12.5 years. All of the patients had had a
decrease in functional ability as a result of the non-union. There were
five femoral, four humeral, one radial, one ulnar, and one pubic non-union.
Five of the non-unions were hypertrophic, and seven were atrophic. Eight of
the nine ununited fractures that were operated on healed after excision of
the non-union, intramedullary nailing, and bone-grafting. Three of the
non-unions (in two patients) were not operated on, and the one patient in
whom surgery failed had an amputation. Non-union was frequently associated
with repeated fractures at a progressively deforming site.