Tissue-engineered bone treating simple bone cyst--a new strategy

The pathological fracture is a most important complication during bone cyst and can be prevented by early focus clearance and bone grafting. Tissue-engineered bone (TEB) with outstanding osteogenesis is a better choice for bone repair. Here, we firstly reported that TEB was used to heal bone cyst.

The clinical data were collected from 23 patients who received bone defect repair separately with TEB or allogeneic bone (Allo-B) after erasion during 2004-2008. Allo-B had been as a control. The healing time and healing quality, the incidence of complications, the safety, and the bone grafting failure rate were compared.

In TEB group, the follow-up time was 28 ± 15.48 months; nine cases were confirmed healed (3.45 ± 2.01 months), one case was cyst healing with defect, and one case had relapse. In Allo-B, 12 patients were followed up for 28.58 ± 20.44 months; seven cases were confirmed healed (6.75 ± 3.31 mo), four cases were cyst healing with defect, and one case had relapse. After operation, no statistically significant differences in bone healing and incidence of complications were observed between two groups, but the difference in bone healing time was statistically significant (P < 0.05). There was no else tumorigenesis in both groups.

In treating simple bone cyst, Allo-B and TEB have considerable efficacy and safety; TEB is superior to Allo-B in respect of healing time; there is no rejection after TEB grafting but certain rejection after Allo-B grafting.