What Happens on the Back Table? Viability and Osteogenic Potential of Reamed Autogenous Bone Graft as a Function of
Adam H Kantor1, William Uffmann, Lucas S Marchand
1Department of Orthopaedics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
Objectives:
To provide guidelines for reamed autogenous bone graft (R-ABG) in nonunion surgery to best manage modifiable intraoperative factors, like storage temperature and time, for optimal graft viability. Our hypothesis was that R-ABG graft will show decreased cell viability as a function of increased time and storage temperature.
Methods:
R-ABG samples were obtained using an RIA system from 10 patients undergoing harvest for the treatment of a nonunion. A 10 cm3 sample of cancellous bone graft was divided into 10 samples. A control sample was processed immediately and analyzed using fluorescence activated cell sorting to determine its cell viability. The remaining samples were stored at 0, 15, and 37°C and processed similarly after 60 and 120 minutes. A paired t test was used to compare the mean change in percent viability.
Results:
The mean percent cell viability for the experimental conditions was not significantly different from the initial percent cell viability (P ≥ 0.08). There were no significant differences in the change in mean percentage of viable cells (P ≥ 0.07). After 60 and 120 minutes of storage, there were no significant differences in mean cell viability based on storage temperature (P ≥ 0.53 and P ≥ 0.68, respectively). A power analysis estimated that a sample size of 52 patients would be needed to detect a difference.
Conclusions:
The results of our pilot study indicate that storage conditions may have less effect on cell viability than previously hypothesized. Further research with more patients is needed to confirm these preliminary results.
Level Of Evidence:
Level II.
