Cranial, iliac, and demineralized freeze-dried bone grafts of the mandible in dogs.

Both autogenous bone grafts and demineralized freeze-dried allogeneic bone implants were evaluated for mandibular reconstruction. Four-centimeter segmental defects of the midbody of the edentulous mandible were reconstructed in 36 dogs, with specimens recovered at 3 and 6 months and quantitatively compared for total and new bone by histomorphometric analysis. Autogenous grafts consisted of corticocancellous cranial block (CB), corticocancellous iliac block (IB), and particulate cancellous iliac marrow (PM). The allogeneic bone was demineralized and freeze-dried, and consisted of particulate cortical endochondral bone (FP), cranial cortical block (FCB), and iliac cortical block (FIB). Clinically and histomorphometrically, results appeared to indicate that (1) CB compared favorably with IB at 3 and 6 months for total bone, but IB showed a trend for more new bone formation at 6 months, a trend that may be due to the thicker cortical component of CB, which requires longer time periods to remodel than the cancellous rich IB; (2) FP failed to achieve bony union at 3 months, with inadequate rates of new bone formation; and (3) FCB and FIB compared favorably for total bone with CB and IB at 6 months, although new bone for autogenous CB and IB was 26.9% and 45.4%, while new bone for allogeneic FCB and FIB represented only 7.9% and 17.4%.