Tips of the trade #9. An easy technique for obtaining cancellous bone graft from bulk sources

Many orthopaedic procedures require the use of cancellous bone grafts, either fresh autograft, frozen allograft, or freeze-dried allograft. On many occasions bulk graft requires conversion to cancellous morselized graft to fill defects. Several commercial bone mills are available, but they can be expensive and cumbersome. This paper describes a simple method of obtaining cancellous graft from femoral heads, either allograft or autograft, with "cheese grater" type acetabular reamers.