Bone Formation in a Free, Living Bone Graft Transferred by Microvascular Anastomoses: A Quantitative Microscopic Study Using Fluorochrome Markers

Abstract

Bone labeling studies with fluorochrome markers (oxytetracycline and DCAF) were carried out in fifteen dogs in which the posterior portion of the ninth rib was transferred, by means of microvascular anastomoses, to a defect fashioned in the mandible. Seven of the dogs received preoperative radiation of the mandible in order to study the performance of the revascularized graft in radiated tissue. In nine animals the bone grafts were labeled in the subperiosteal, the cortical and the endosteal parts, as opposed to the non-labeling of conventional free bone grafts. Determination of the linear bone formation rate in seven dogs (five non-radiated and two radiated), with the use of a scanning microscope photometer, showed no significant difference between the growth rate in the grafts and that in three other skeletal sites studied.