Experimental Infarction of Bone Marrow.

Abstract

In the course of a study of the etiology of solitary bone cysts, a series of experiments was performed, the object of which was to infarct large areas of bone marrow and to determine whether or not a cystic degeneration takes place in these areas with formation of lesions similar to the solitary bone cysts of man.

The animals used were young and adult dogs. Under ether anesthesia and careful aseptic precautions, the periosteum over nearly the entire femoral shaft between epiphyseal lines was elevated, thus severing all blood supply and drainage. Small areas of periosteum were left intact near the extremities of the shaft to afford a ready source of blood supply for revascularization of the infarcted areas.

Twenty-four hours following operation no change was noted. Four animals sacrificed at various intervals from 4 to 8 days following operation show grossly infarction of the marrow of the shaft as evidenced by its pale dull yellow color in contrast with the red-brown appearance of normal marrow in the unoperated extremity. Near the epiphyseal lines are small sharply demarked red areas corresponding to the uninfarcted marrow beneath the small areas of intact periosteum. Microscopically, the marrow in the infarcted regions is necrotic, and the bony trabeculae well within the infarcted areas are dead. In the zone between infarcted and living marrow, there is, in places, a wide area of dense leucocytic infiltration, elsewhere the necrotic and living marrow are sharply demarcated without a zone of leucocytic infiltration.

A specimen studied 30 days after operation exhibited a porous cortex and red-brown normal appearing marrow in the metaphyses. In the upper portion of the shaft, the marrow cavity was filled by dense white fibrous tissue.