Bone grafts with microvascular anastomoses of vascular pedicles: an experimental study in dogs.

Using microvascular anastomoses of artery and vein, bone grafts with vascular pedicles from the rib were transferred to inlay and bridge defects in the femora of forty-two dogs. The osteocytes of the pedicle graft were not affected, and neither necrosis nor creeping substitution occurred in the grafted bone. The pedicle bone grafts united to the recipient bed earlier than did the non-pedicle bone grafts, and the rate of non-union of the pedicle bone grafts was lower than that of the non-pedicle grafts.