THE FATE OF PRESERVED AUTOGENOUS BONE-GRAFT

Certain clinical conditions exist in which a section of cranial bone i s removed but not immediately replaced at the initial procedure. Prese rvation of this bone can provide a valuable autogeneous donor source f or a future reconstructive procedure. The purpose of our study was to compare the volume retention of fresh autogenous bone with that of pre served autogenous bone as inlay and onlay cranial grafts. Two bone gra fts were harvested from the skull of 15 adult New Zealand White rabbit s. The graft volumes were calculated, and the grafts were preserved in a normal saline-antibiotic solution at -20 degrees C. Three months la ter, during the second procedure, a fresh graft was harvested and then placed in the preexisting occipital defect as an inlay graft. Also at this time, the preserved grafts were placed, one as an inlay graft in the fresh occipital defect and the other as an onlay graft in the fro ntal region. The animals were sacrificed 3 months later, and the perce nt age of graft volume retention was determined. The fresh inlay graft s had a mean volume retention of 85.1 percent, while the preserved inl ay and onlay grafts had 61.8 and 75.9 percent mean volume retention, r espectively. It is concluded that while fresh cranial autograft remain s the ''gold standard'' for craniofacial reconstruction, preserved aut ogenous cranial bone is a viable alternative for inlay and onlay graft ing of the craniofacial region.