REHARVEST OF ILIAC CREST DONOR SITE CANCELLOUS BONE

Patients requiring cancellous bone grafting of an extensive deficit or multiple bone grafting procedures often lack a sufficient quantity of autogenous cancellous bone, Canine studies have indicated that a pote ntial exists for reharvesting autogenous cancellous bone from an iliac crest donor site using a trapdoor harvesting technique, However, sign ificant human experience with this procedure has been lacking, This re port describes four patients who underwent successful reharvesting of an iliac crest donor site that provided clinically sufficient autogeno us cancellous bone graft material to treat an ongoing or a new skeleta l problem. These patients all met specific criteria regarding use of t he trapdoor method of bone graft harvest and a minimum 24-month interv al between bone grafting procedures, Preoperative computed tomography scanning of the iliac crest was useful in documenting that sufficient cancellous bone was available for reharvest, It appears that iliac cre st donor site reharvesting is a specific advantage of the trapdoor tec hnique and is a possible alternative to multiple site grafting or the use of allograft or bone substitute materials.