Fractures in cases of osteogenesis imperfecta usually heal without difficulty, but at times, after repeated fractures at the same site, union is either by fibrous tissue or by a soft osteoid tissue. Patients with ununited fractures or with severe deformities of the bones of the lower extremities, some of whom are unable to walk, are seen not uncommonly. In such cases, both as a result of the basic pathologic condition and from atrophy of disuse, the bones are very small and weak, making weight bearing, even with braces, impracticable.
A situation of this sort, which occurred in an 11 year old girl with severely deformed, ununited femurs, who never had walked, was the reason for my experimenting with homologous bone grafts from the tibias of the patient's mother in an attempt to correct the deformities, bring about union in the femurs, and, at the same time, strengthen them sufficiently to