BONE-REPLACEMENT MATERIALS - STATE-OF-THE -ART AND THE WAY AHEAD

For the treatment of bony defects of the human skeleton there are diff erent options. If a defect has to be filled up, autogenous cancellous bone is recommended as the 'golden standard', i.e. the material of cho ice for such procedures, ignorant to the fact that autogenous bone tra nsplants are not without consequences to the patient and that their ha rvesting and transplantation might be connected to certain complicatio ns. As an alternative, there have been attempts to implant bone replac ement materials as a substitute for the autogenous tissue. Despite a l ongstanding history of research in this field up to now a clinically a pplicable alternative could not have been found. Aim of the articel is to classify the different compounds recommended for bone replacement. After a description of the development of the materials in the differ ent classes, the state of the art and todays knowledge of how the diff erent materials elicite their effects, an outlook into possible future developments is given for each class. Finally recommendations for tod ays clinical use of the bone substitutes are presented.