Abstract
Reconstruction of the acetabulum in the presence of severe bone loss presents challenging problems. Ideally, the acetabulum should be reconstructed with a stable component placed in the anatomical position with reconstitution of bone stock. The clinical and radiological results of using impacted morselised allograft for acetabular reconstruction appear satisfactory in the short term but there is little histological evidence in humans that the bone chips are revascularised and incorporated into the host.
We present two cases of histology of retrieved bone samples, obtained at two years and three years following impaction allografting of the acetabulum. Both samples were taken from cases of aseptic failure, and were obtained during the revision surgery. It showed that the bone was viable, and undergoing the process of creeping substitution, where new bone was being laid down on dead bone. At three years this process was not yet complete, which indicates that the process is significantly slower than that described by Sloof in his animal experiments.
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