[Experimental study on vascularized fresh whole-joint allograft transplantation]

The vascularization of fresh whole knee and hip joints was done as part of an allograft transplant procedure involving forty rats (12 weeks old). Cyclosporin and prednisolone were injected into thirty-five recipient rats; five rats did not receive any drugs and were used as the control group. All control group rats with necrotic limbs died two to three weeks after the operation. Eleven of the twenty rats with transplanted knee joints and ten of the fifteen rats with transplanted hip joints began walking with full weight-bearing and the transplanted joints exhibited good mobility one month after the operation. Autopsy findings four, eight and sixteen weeks after the operation showed no degenerative or necrotic changes of the articular cartilage or subchondral bone of the joints. We concluded that this technique of vascularized whole-joint transplantation in rats was successful. This may be clinically applicable to reconstructive surgery after resection of diseased joints.