Experimental Study of the Formalin-Preserved Bone Grafts

Abstract

The author has attempted in this experiment to compair, using Okada-Mimura's timemarking method with lead acetate injection, the effects of the grafts of formalin-preserved bone and of fresh bone.
The operative procedure consisted of bridging a graft between both sides of the mandibulae of forty adult rabbits ; the grafts measured about 15 mm.
The animals were sacrificed at one to eighteen months. In no case was there any chance that the grafts were lost because of infection.
There was no evidence from these experiments that any of the bone elements of fresh autogenous transplant lived or retained osteogenetic power.
The author has demonstrated that the new bone formation was totally a function of the host tissue, and ultimately the grafts were replaced by newly formed bone from the host tissues.
In the new bone formations, autogenous bone grafts were superior to fresh homogenous bone grafts and preserved bone grafts. But there were no differences between fresh homogenous and preserved bone grafts.
The formalin-preserved bone grafts were inferior to fresh bone grafts only in the fixation and replacement in early phases of healing.
It appeared that the process of resorption of the preserved bone grafts was slower than that of the fresh grafts. It seems that the resorption of the preserved bone grafts was a function of newly formed bone marrow.
All of the grafts induced the growth of the new bone. The vinyl resin also induced the growth of the newly formed bone.
There was no difference between the formalin preserved and fresh bone grafts in the essential mechanism of the process of bone transplantation.