Spontaneous bone regeneration in surgically induced bone defects in young rabbits

Defects of the femoral shaft (15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% of the femoral length) with intact periosteum were made in young rabbits to investigate differences in union time. The mean union time was 7.3, 7.1, 7.4, and 7.0 weeks, respectively and there was no significant difference (P>0.05) between the groups. The mean healing indices were 6.7, 4.6, 3.9, and 3.1 weeks/cm, respectively and these were significantly different (P < 0.05) between the 15% bone defect group and the other bone defect groups. These results suggested that union time was not affected by the amount of bone defect. Femoral lengthening of 20% was performed to compare the quality of callus with those of the femoral defect of 20%. The mean healing indices of defect and lengthening were 4.6 and 5.7, respectively and the difference was significant (P = 0.004). The callus stiffness of femoral defect was higher (P = 0.02) than that after femoral lengthening whereas the bone mineral density of the callus showed no significant difference (P = 0.37) between two groups. The method of filling bone defect with callus generated from the intact periosteum may be a new therapeutic option for the reconstruction of large bone defects in children when other treatments are not available.