Abstract Reduction of morbidity in osseous reconstruction of cranio-maxillofacial bony defects could come from development of less invasive bone graft harvesting techniques or by elimination of bone graft donor sites using a bone graft substitute. This work studies outcomes and morbidity associated with these two approaches. A power-driven trephine was used to harvest bone from the anterior iliac crest using a minimally invasive surgical technique. Initially the safety of the technique was evaluated in a cadaver model. Twenty-five freshly preserved adult cadavers had a total of 250 cancellous cores of bone harvested from 50 anterior iliac crest sites. Twenty intentional perforations were made to the maximum depth possible with the instrumentation tested. No encroachment upon the peritoneum was found. A total of 84 patients had 333 cores of cancellous bone harvested using the same approach with a complication rate of 3.6% and a patient satisfaction rate of 98.8%. In a further 76 patients the motorized trephine method was compared to traditional open iliac crest corticocancellous block harvesting. The trephine group ambulated earlier, required fewer days of hospital stay and had significantly lower pain scores than the open iliac crest group. Coral-derived granules were used as a xenograft bone graft substitute to treat bony defects in the cranio-maxillofacial skeletons of 36 patients with 54 sites and followed for 12 to 36 months. The augmentations produced satisfactory results with the following complications noted: overt wound infection 1.8%, wound irritation 3.8% and clinically evident resorption in 9.3% of augmented sites. Coral-derived granules were then used to treat 48 dento-alveolar defects in 21 growing patients with trauma induced tooth-loss in the anterior maxilla and elective ankylosed tooth removal in the posterior maxilla and mandible. Coral granules were significantly more efficacious in reconstructing alveolar defects in the posterior maxilla or mandible (93.5%), than the anterior maxilla (17.6%). The minimally invasive technique using a power driven trephine was successful at reducing morbidity from bone graft harvesting at the anterior iliac crest. Coral-derived granules can be used in selected situations as a bone graft substitute and minimize post surgical morbidity by eliminating the bone graft donor site.

Abstract This study focuses on the development of a bone collecting device for intra-oral bone harvesting and on the introduction of a new bone graft donor site, zygomatic bone. A bone collector was constructed and tested in vitro. This bone collector is suitable and efficient in dental implant related bone grafting surgery. It was also found to be more efficient and with a larger capacity in bone harvesting when compared to the two commercially available bone collectors. A zygomatic bone harvesting technique is introduced in this study. The safety and morbidity of the method was assessed in a cadaver and a prospective clinical study. In the cadaver study, 40 procedures were performed. The complications during the cadaver harvesting included 15 perforations into the maxillary sinus and 7 perforations into the infratemporal fossa. The only intra-operative complication in 32 clinical operations was perforation of the maxillary sinus in 33% of the zygomatic sites. None of these patients experienced any post-operative problems related to the perforation. Patients needed pain medication for a mean time of four days and they did not demonstrate any paresthesias or altered sensations in the donor area. The yield of the bone graft from zygomatic bone was quantified in cadaver and clinical studies. In the cadaver study, the average yield of the graft was 0.59 ml. In the clinical study the average graft volume was 0.90 ml. The required reconstructions were accomplished in all clinical cases. In the prospective clinical study, the bone grafts from the zygomatic bone were used simultaneously with one-stage dental implants placement. Bone grafting was employed at 72 of the 82 implant sites. Two of the bone grafted implants failed, yielding a survival rate of 97.2% for bone grafted implants and 97.6% for the whole study group. Grafted sites healed remarkably well, and no obvious signs of graft resorption were noted during the 26.9 months follow-up period. The bone collector developed in this study is an effective instrument in intra-oral bone harvesting. The zygomatic bone can be regarded as a safe bone harvesting donor site and the yield of bone graft from this area is sufficient for moderate defects in resorbed alveolar ridges.