[Chronic inflammation 30 years after tibial intramedullary nailing--foreign body reaction or bacterial infection?]

30 years after two-fold marrow nailing of the tibia due to the formation of a pseudarthrosis and timely removal of the implants in a miner who was 17 years of age at that time, we found a chronic irritation that required surgical therapy. After excision of a two inch long sequester and escape of a small and cheesy core without identification of germs the patient is symptom-free since one and a half year. A foreign-body reaction to corrosion products of the implant or a late infection with low-virulent germs of the bradytrophic medullary callus appears to be the underlying cause.