Treatment of Difficult Sternal Non-union Using the RIA Bone Marrow Harvest System

This video shows a patient who was suffering from manubrium nonunion after a mini aortic valve replacement. The nonunion caused significant pain and clicking. The patient was a heavily built male and CT scanning showed several fragments, which suggested that simple plating would be ineffective. Femoral bone marrow is an ideal medium to induce good union and is used in many other areas of chronic nonunion. The orthopedic department joined the case and harvested bone marrow from the right femur with the Reaming-Irrigation-Aspiration (RIA) system. Two clavicular plates were placed across the area of nonunion to hold the manubrium together until union was achieved. The team was very satisfied with the results. At two months postoperative, the patient was pain free and had a stable union.