Incorporation of cancellous bone into a diaphyseal defect of the radius in growing rabbits: tube-shaped versus homogeneous grafts.

Abstract

The purpose of the investigation was to find out whether healing of a defect in a tubular bone is different when a transplant of crushed spongy bone is tube shaped or homogeneous. In rabbits aged 6-8 weeks a defect in the radius was completely filled with bone in 34 rabbits. In 91 animals a piece of steel wire, catgut, or gelatin sponge was implanted, provoking a tube shape of the crushed bone. The animals were killed 8-90 days after the operation. In transverse sections of the transplants, the amount of spongy bone, compact bone, and marrow cavity each was estimated by means of a grid of squares in the microscope. The remodeling of the transplants was considerably faster in the series with tube-shaped grafts than in the series in which the whole defect was filled with bone. The material was reexamined by histomorphometry. The results confirmed the findings achieved with a grid.