Bone lengthening (distraction osteogenesis): a literature review.

Distraction osteogenesis (DO) is a surgical technique widely used in orthopedic surgery for the treatment of various pathological conditions such as leg length discrepancy, bone deformity or bone defects. The basic principle of the callotasis technique includes performing a transverse bone section before gradually distracting the two bone segments. New bone tissue is generated in the gap between the two segments. Bone regeneration during DO is believed to occur in response to the longitudinal mechanical strain applied to the callus during healing. One of the limitations of this technique is the long period of time required for the newly formed bone tissue to mineralize and consolidate. Various studies have reported that among growth factors, bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) may play a central role in the molecular signaling cascade leading to bone renegeration and remodeling in a DO procedure. Ongoing research is aimed at developing methods to accelerate bone consolidation in order to reduce the time required to obtain consolidation. One of these methods is to test the ability of exogenous BMPs to increase bone regeneration and accelerate bone consolidation.