Bone Grafts: Procedures, Complications & Alternatives

Autogenous bone grafting continues to be the gold standard for treating osseous defects and stimulating new bone formation. Harvesting of autogenous bone grafts can be associated with a significant risk of complications. Also, the amount of bone graft that can be harvested is limited. Therefore, efforts have been made to develop different bone graft substitutes such as: allografts, synthetic bone substitutes, platelet-rich plasma, bone marrow aspirate, Bone Morphogenetic Proteins, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor, Fibroblast Growth Factors, parathyroid hormone and Wnt signalling. Some techniques with the use of bone autografts in orthopaedics and dentistry, complications associated with the harvest of autografts, the use of other alternatives, their biology and clinical applications and a look into research into new materials and technologies aiming to improve this field in medicine will be discussed in this book.