Following medical management and surgical drainage, vertebral osteomyelitis may require anterior corpec-tomy. These defects are typically reconstructed with nonvascular cancellous grafts. Since ensuring sterility and preventing bone graft infection is often unpredictable, vascu-larized bone via a free flap may be a suitable alternative. We present the first documented case of a vascularized fibula strut graft for reconstructing a cervical spine defect following osteomyelitis secondary to rapidly progressive retropharyngeal abscess. The University of Maryland institutional review board exempted this report.
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