Quantitative assessment of in vivo bone regeneration consolidation in distraction osteogenesis

We present a new method for quantitatively assessing the consolidation of bone regeneration by performing distraction osteogenesis in micropigs. We measured in vivo stiffness using a newly developed, revolving, bone-healing meter. After the micropigs were killed, we obtained maximum torsional moment data for the regenerated bones by destructive mechanical testing, and we then correlated these data with the data for stiffness. We found a highly significant regression between in vivo stiffness and maximum torsional moment (r2 = 0.80), suggesting that monitoring stiffness may be useful for the prediction of bone regeneration in distraction osteogenesis. Therefore, our method may be a reliable tool for future quantitative monitoring of healing progress in patients with healing bones or in animal studies addressing treatments to increase bone formation in long-bone defects.