Impacted bone and calcium phosphate cement for repair of femoral head defects: a pilot study

Bone impaction grafting has been advocated for reconstruction of femoral head osteonecrosis. However, bone grafts do not prevent the progression of collapse and subsequent disabling osteoarthritis in late-stage osteonecrosis. We hypothesized reconstruction of large subchondral defects with a mix of impacted morsellized cancellous bone grafts and calcium phosphate cement would afford mechanical stability allowing remodeling into new bone without femoral head collapse. In a pilot study we created a critically sized subchondral defect model in 15 goats following the trapdoor procedure. Defects were left empty (n = 3), filled with morsellized cancellous bone grafts (n = 6), or filled with a mixture of morsellized cancellous bone and calcium phosphate cement (n = 6). No defects collapsed by sacrifice at 12 weeks. Defects filled with morsellized cancellous bone showed complete incorporation and remodeling to a normal trabecular structure. In the morsellized cancellous bone/calcium phosphate cement group, most of the calcium phosphate cement was resorbed in 12 weeks and the mixture was largely replaced by fibrous or fatty marrow. Although the specific mixture did not confirm our hypothesis, we suspect a slower resorbing calcium phosphate cement remains a promising material to mix with morsellized cancellous bone to treat late stages of femoral head osteonecrosis.