Patients
Autografts
Autografts, or bone harvested from the individual patient, remains widely practiced in the US. Bone grafts are usually taken from the iliac crest, or upper hip, although they may also be taken from bones of the leg. This procedure has several advantages, such as:
- no risk of contamination from biological material
- low material cost
- full resorbability,
however it also has some disadvantages, including:
- the need for an additional surgical site
- increased surgical (anesthesia) time
- relatively high complications
- pain from the harvested site for up to 6 months or even longer
For these reasons many surgeons are now using synthetic bone replacement
materials. In some cases the synthetic material is combined with an
autograft to minimize the injury to the autograft site and increase the
volume of bone filler available. Synthetic bone replacement materials
can also be combined with bone from the primary surgical site or bone
marrow, which is extracted from the iliac crest by aspiration through a
needle. These methods eliminate the need for a second surgical site and
the related potential for complications.