Bone Transplantation

Bone transplantation is often popular with the term of bone grafting. This kind of transplantation has become a familiar surgery in medical world. It even becomes a developing program in some hospitals and other medical facilities in some countries. Bone transplant surgery is a procedure during which a new bone or replacement materials are put on the wrecked bone or between the bone holes. It aims to repair the damaged bones which can be caused by several things such as accident, bone cancer, birth defect, and traumatic injury. Moreover, it can also help correcting the bone deformity and fusion in vertebrae. Bone composition enables it to completely regenerate. However, fracture space, the very small one, or scaffold is needed. Like other transplantations, this bone transplant surgery also brings some risks for the patient. In addition, the transplantation process is quite complicated. Thus, it is quite reasonable that the cost for one surgery is relatively high.

Bone grafting will need new bone which can be taken from two different sources. This new bone can be drawn from parts the patient’s body, for example the ribs or the hip bones, which are healthy and strong enough to be transplanted. This is what we call auto-graft. On the other hand, the new bone can also be obtained from somebody else’s parts of the body, which is usually called allograft. The bone or tissue is generally kept frozen and stored in bank of tissue. Besides, the new bone can also be replaced with the synthetic and natural materials. There are now large selections of these materials, for instance, materials which are made from collagen (one of materials composing bone), polymer like acrylic and silicon, calcium sulfate, ceramics, and hydroxyapatite. After the bone transplant surgery, these new bones will dissolve slowly as the new bone is growing.

Bone transplant surgery can be done through three different ways: osteogenesis, osteoinduction, and osteoconduction. Osteogenesis lets the new bone is formatted by cells inside the graft. Meanwhile, osteoinduction is a process where molecules of the graft renovate the patient’ cells which then are able to form new bone. On the other hand, in osteoconduction, the graft matrix forms scaffolds in which the cells can generate new bone. On the surgery, grafts are placed after the surgeon formulates an incision on the skin covering the defect bone. They are placed with screws, plates, or pins which help them to stay still on the space. In fact, the grafts should not move in order that the bone forming runs well and results on good shape. After the bone transplant surgery, the patient convalescence will take for about 1-10 days, based on the condition of the bone around the graft and the size of the defect bones. During the recovery, the patient should limit the movement, especially on the grafted bone.