Vertical bone augmentation with granulated brushite cement set in glycolic acid

Brushite cements are a biocompatible materials that are resorbed in vivo. A new cement composed of a mixture of monocalcium phosphate (MCP) and beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) that sets using glycolic acid (GA) was synthesized and characterized. After setting, the cement composition, derived from X-ray diffraction, was 83 wt % brushite and 17 wt % beta-TCP with an average brushite crystal size of about 2.6 +/- 1.4 microm. The cement has a diametral tensile strength of 2.9 +/- 0.7 MPa. Granules prepared from the set-cement were used as grafting material in bone defects on rabbit calvaria for evaluating in vivo its bone regeneration capacity. Considerable cement resorption, improvement in the bone mineral density, and bone neoformation was observed after 4 weeks of the granules' implantation.