Rh. Rudderman et al., THE FATE OF FRESH AND PRESERVED, NONCRUSHED AND CRUSHED AUTOGENOUS CARTILAGE IN THE RABBIT MODEL, Annals of plastic surgery, 32(3), 1994, pp. 250-254
This study was conducted to investigate volume retention and chondrocy
te survival rate in autogenous fresh noncrushed, fresh crushed, preser
ved noncrushed, and preserved crushed cartilage grafts in rabbits. Dur
ing the first phase of this investigation, cartilage was harvested fro
m the right ear of 20 New Zealand white rabbits, then preserved. Four
months later during the second phase, two 6-mm discs of previously har
vested and preserved cartilage, one crushed and one noncrushed, were a
pplied to the right ear. At the same time, two 6-mm discs of fresh car
tilage graft were harvested from the left ear and then placed at a hig
her level on the same side, one crushed and one noncrushed. Three mont
hs after implantation, the rabbits were sacrificed and the grafts were
evaluated. The preserved noncrushed cartilage retained 91.34% of the
volume (SD = 2.46). Although most of the chondrocytes were nonviable,
vascular ingrowth occurred with a significant repopulation of chondroc
ytes peripherally, in association with vascular endothelial ingrowth.
The preserved crushed cartilage retained 74.19% of the volume (SD = 3.
06). Most of the original chondrocytes were lost, but vascular ingrowt
h did occur and some osteoid formation occurred on the crushed cartila
ges. All chondrocytes on the fresh noncrushed cartilage grafts were vi
able and the grafts retained 94.54% of the volume (SD = 2.46). Crushed
fresh cartilage retained 69.73% of its volume and the amount of viabl
e chondrocytes ranged from 70% to 90% in the specimens evaluated (SD =
5.15). Although there is no question that noncrushed cartilage is sup
erior, crushed cartilage can be used with a fair degree of predictabil
ity to attain the aesthetic goal. However, overcorrection is necessary
to achieve optimal final results.