A 22-year-old man in the UK has made headlines around the world after sharing how a rotationplasty saved his life. Rotationplasty (commonly known as a Van Nes rotation or Borggreve rotation) is essentially an autograft where a portion of a limb is excised and the distal (remaining) limb below rotated and reattached. It is most commonly used to transfer the ankle joint to the knee following removal of a distal femoral bone tumour. The rotation is required because the ankle flexes in the opposite direction to the knee.
Ibrahim Abdulrauf was only 14 when he fell during a football match after being tackled on the pitch.
He didn’t think he had suffered anything serious but the following day he awoke to find he was unable to walk and was in agony.
He was taken to the Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham where he was told he had osteomyelitis and spent the following six weeks in hospital.
With his pain continuing he was sent to the city’s Royal Orthopaedic Hospital where he was diagnosed with a sarcoma.
Doctors advised him to have six months of chemotherapy before having a rotationplasty to prevent his cancer spreading.
Ibrahim told media in the UK: "I couldn't imagine seeing myself with a backwards foot. I was thinking that it was like Frankenstein.
"After surgery, I remember waking up completely naked. I didn't know if they'd done the surgery or not.
"I lifted the bedsheet and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
"I had a leg when I went to sleep and I woke up and my foot was backwards.
''The leg was bandaged but the foot was visible at the bottom."
After the surgery he had another five months of chemotherapy and then started daily exercises to help him get used to the prosthesis he uses today.
He spent three years learning to walk again and now plays sports, dances and is self-sufficient for the first time in years.
Ibrahim added: “"Rotationplasty gives you a lot more function and movement. You can control the leg yourself.
"This way I can use my own leg with my own nerves because they reattach them all after putting the leg back on."
