To compare efficacy of bone transport technology combined with segmented filling with bone cement and the bone shortening-lengthening surgery in treating patients with large tibial bone defects after trauma.

A total of 63 patients (there were 40 males and 23 females with an average age of (48.75±6.13) years) with post-traumatic large tibial bone defect admitted to our hospital from January 2018 to August 2023 were divided into control group (30 cases were treated by bone handling technology combined with bone cement segmental packing) and experimental group (33 cases were treated by bone shortening and lengthening) according to different surgical methods. The general condition, the degree of bone healing, lower limb function score, complications, and fracture healing time were compared between the two groups.

The intraoperative and postoperative blood loss and total drainage volume in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.05); There was no statistically conspicuous difference in excellent rate of bone healing between experimental group and control group (90.91%, 96.67%) (P>0.05). The knee score and ankle Baird-Jackson score obtained by the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) of the experimental group and the control group at 1, 3 and 6 months after surgery by repeated measurement ANvariance analysis showed statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control group (F=5.085, P=0.025; F=6.129, P=0.014), except before surgery, the difference was statistically significant at different time points (F=203.151, P<0.001; F=189.122, P<0.001), there was no interaction between groups and time (F=1.339, P=0.262; F=2.262, P=0.082) There was no statistically conspicuous difference in incidence of primary and secondary complications between experimental group and control group (primary: 12.12%, 23.33%; secondary: 30.30%, 46.67%) (P>0.05). The natural healing time of bone defects in experimental group was conspicuously shorter than that in control group (P<0.05).

Bone transport technology combined with segmented bone cement packing and bone shortening - lengthening surgery can both effectively promote bone healing in patients with large tibial bone defects after trauma, improve the functions of the knee and ankle joints of patients, and have similar complication rates. However, the intraoperative and postoperative blood loss and drainage volume of bone transport technology combined with segmented bone cement packing are less, and the fracture healing time of bone shortening - lengthening surgery is relatively shorter.