The influence of physeal injury upon growth correction of deformed rat tibia

Experimentally produced angulatory deformities of rat tibia with and without physeal injury were observed at two to three-week intervals for an eight-week period by x-ray studies, in order to estimate the spontaneous correctability of tibial deformity in growing rats. The results obtained were as follows: 1) In the retrocurvated rat tibia with intact physes or with distal physeal injury, roughly one quarter of the initial angle was corrected during the eight-week observation period, with greater correction occurring during the first five weeks in both groups. 2) Injury of the distal physis hardly influenced the correction capacity of the deformed tibia. 3) The physis and diaphysis played equally important roles in the remodelling process of rat tibia with intact physes. However, early remodelling took place on a considerably larger scale and with greater rapidity through physeal growth, and late remodelling similarly through the diaphyseal appositional growth.