Abstract
The purpose of this study was to establish a method of measuring the rate of blood flow through the bone cortex of the canine femur, and to compare postoperative changes in the rate of blood flow between 3 groups of femora, (1) left sided femur after left prosthetic hip replacement using cement (cement group), (2) similar femur but without cement (noncement group), (3) right sided intact femur (control group). Blood flow was measured by a direct method. The rate of continuous blood flow began to increase in the 1st week, attained a peak in the 6th week, then stabilized in the 12th week. In the 6th week, the blood flow rate of the cement group (0.453±0.063g/min/100g/cm2) was 35 times larger than that of the control group (0.013±0.005g/min/100g/cm2) (p<0.01). In the periosteum, primitive bone tissue and vascular neogenesis were observed. The blood flow rate of the noncement group (0.081 ± 0.008g/min/100 g/cm2) was 6 times larger than that of the control group (p<0.01). Similar findings were obtained in both the periosteum and endosteum, but were of lesser degree than in the cement group.
