Healing of mandibular body osteotomies after plate and intramedullary pin fixation.

Osteotomies were created in the left body of the mandible of nine dogs and immediately stabilized with either a six hole dynamic compression bone plate or an intramedullary pin. Cortical bone healing and vascular supply were evaluated at weeks 2, 5, and 10 by microradiography, microangiography, and correlated histology of selected mandibular slices. Perforating arterioles from the buccal mucosa maintained vascular supply to rostral mandibular segments. The mandibular body rostral to the osteotomy site and caudal to the canine tooth suffered an interruption of vascular supply that was replaced by a temporary extraosseous supply during healing of the osteotomy. Intramedullary pin placement resulted in destruction of rostral teeth. There was an inflammatory response around the rostral portion of all intramedullary pins. Osteotomy sites involving tooth roots resulted in no disruption of the normal vascular or neural structures of the tooth pulp.