Autogenous femoral head as grafting material for mandibular augmentation

Bone grafting is commonly used for augmentation of the atrophic edentulous maxilla and mandible. Although bone substitutes and allogeneic frozen bone grafts have been applied successfully, fresh autogenous bone grafts remain the 'gold standard' in maxillofacial reconstructive surgery. A disadvantage of harvesting autogenous bone is the resulting donor-site morbidity. The authors present a case in which an autogenous femoral head, which was removed because of a prosthetic hip replacement, was used for augmentation of the extreme atrophic mandible. Using this procedure avoids donor-site morbidity.