Fracaso del cartílago costal en el tratamiento de defectos óseos experimentales. Estudio histológico y radiológico Failure of costal cartilage on the treatment of experimental cavitary bone defects. Histological and radilogical study

Summary. An experimental study was carried out to demonstrate the utility of costal, fresh or cryopreserved cartilage (autologous and homologous), in the treatment of cavitary bone defects of long bones and to observe whether simple radiology is reliable for assessing of its incorporation. The study involved implanting costal cartilage, without perichondrial tissue, in a cavitary bone defect of the distal metafisis in rabbit femur. Two types of graft were used, according to their origin (autologous and homologous) and to the conservation procedure (fresh and cryopreserved). We worked on 3 separate groups of 6 rabbits. We assessed the incorporation of the graft by means of histology and simple radiology studies, at 3, 6 and 12 weeks. The conclusions of this work demonstrate that costal cartilage implants do not act as osteoinductor elements, and that simple radiology is not a reliable method for assessing the incorporation of the graft.