Allograft Transplantation and Reconstruction of Bones after Malignant Tumor Resections.

Abstract

Reconstruction surgery after the excision of musculoskeletal tumors has advanced greatly in the last few decades. After resection of a large piece of bone, limb reconstruction (when is necessary) can be easily achieved with mechanical reconstruction with metallic prosthesis, or biological reconstruction with bone. The use of bone in reconstructive orthopedic surgery is to repair skeletal defects and accelerate bone healing. Bone grafts can be used to achieve this. Those can be allografts and autografts. The standard in bone grafting consists of tissue harvested from the patient, autograft, usually from the iliac crest or distal femur and tibia. Allografts are taken from donors or cadavers and they serve as alternatives to autograft in bone reconstruction. In our case, the patients were treated with wide resection of the bone segment. The defect was reconstructed with intercalary bone and osteosynthesis was made with locking plates. A cadaveric graft was used. Autogenous bone is generally used as an optimal graft because it integrates faster and with fewer complications. Allogenous bone can carry the risk of viral infection for the recipient. Anyhow, allografts can serve as the only therapeutic options, besides endoprosthesis devices for large size reconstruction.

Keywords

• allograft
• transplantation
• bony reconstruction
• cadaveric
• donor
• metallic prosthesis