In vivo hydroxyapatite scaffold performance in infected bone defects

This study proposes an alternative to the autograft using a porous, hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffold evaluated with and without infection and antibiotics. Twenty ‐four New Zealand white rabbits received either our HA scaffold or a pulverized autograft (PBA) within a surgically created critical‐sized defect in the femur. The two grafts were evaluated in either septic or aseptic defects and with or without antibiotic treatment. The HA scaffolds were charac terized with micro computed tomography. Post‐euthanasia, micro computed tomography, histology, and white blood cells component analysis were completed. The HA had significantly greater (p<  .001) mineralization to total volume than the PBA groups with 27.56% and 14.88%, respectively, and the septic HA groups were significantly greater than the aseptic groups both with and without antibiotics (p =  .016). The bone quality denoted by bone mineral density was also significantly greater (p<  .001) in the HA groups (67.01 ± 0.38 mgHA/cm3) than the PBA groups (64.66  ± 0.85 mgHA/cm3). The HA scaffold is a viable alternative to the bone autograft in defects with and without infection as shown by the quality and quantity of bone.
Source: Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials - Category: Materials Science Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL RESEARCH REPORT Source Type: research