Lateral Column Lengthening Plate, Titanium

Lengthening the outer column of the foot is a correction measured in millimetres: the calcaneus is divided, the front fragment is moved outwards, and the gap that opens is exactly the amount of lengthening gained. Holding that gap open while bone fills it is the plate's job, and the integrated wedge does it mechanically — the wedge occupies the gap, so the correction cannot settle back while the screws are placed.

The four wedge options turn the correction plan into an implant choice. The surgeon who wants a modest lengthening picks the small wedge; a larger deformity calls for the medium or the large; and the wedge-free version serves where the lengthening is held by graft alone and the plate only protects it. Which amount of lengthening a foot needs is a planning decision for the operating surgeon, made from the weight-bearing imaging and the deformity analysis.

At surgery the calcaneal osteotomy is made and the front fragment is moved outwards to open the planned gap. The plate is then seated on the lateral wall with its wedge occupying the osteotomy, and the screws fix it to the fragments on both sides; where bone graft is used, it is packed around the wedge. The osteotomy is thereby held at its corrected length until the bone bridges the gap. The extent of lengthening, the wedge option and the graft plan are determined by the operating surgeon.

The plates follow the original system design without deviation, so the screws and instruments of the corresponding surgical technique fit directly. BoneCraft stocks all four wedge options, and wholesale orders can combine this line with the fusion plates and the calcaneal plates of the same foot system in one shipment.