Investigation of donor site pain after iliac crest bone graft

Abstract

Postoperative donor-site pain was evaluated in 77 consecutive patients who underwent autogenous iliac crest bone graft (ICBG) harvest for reconstructive spine surgery and had a minimum follow-up of 6-months. The patients were classified to 3 groups according to the location and the technique of harvesting: Posterior ICBG group, Anterior full-thickness ICBG group, Anterior inner-table ICBG group. The significance of differences between the two anterior ICBG groups was analyzed. Overall, sixteen patients (20.8%) reported the presence of postoperative pain at the donor site. Five patients (25%) from the posterior ICBG group, nine patients (27%) from the anterior full-thickness ICBG group and two patients (8%) from the anterior inner-table ICBG group reported postoperative pain at the donor site. Althought there were no significant differences between the two anterior ICBG groups, there were fewer patients complaining of pain in the inner-table group than in the full-thickness group.