TRANSPLANTATION OF EPIPHYSIAL CARTILAGE

Abstract

Many experiments concerned with the transplantation of epiphysial cartilage have been performed in the past, with varying amounts of success. Helferich,¹ Rehn and Wakabayashi,² von Tappeiner,³ Obata⁴ and Heller⁵ all reported some degree of subsequent longitudinal growth of bone. Heller, especially, had remarkably good results in 120 experiments and concluded that autoplastic reimplantation of the epiphysial plate was successful and that the procedure offered a promise of favorable application in man. Fohl.⁶ working with an epiphysial cartilage plate and a piece of attached diaphysis, likewise expressed the belief that the results justified practical clinical application. Haas,⁷ on the other hand, has been antagonistic to the procedure on the ground that the epiphysial cartilage plate loses its power of causing growth of bone after transplantation and that one is not warranted in attempting such a transplantation in a patient with the expectation of obtaining