Replacement of an Avulsed Phalanx with Tissue-Engineered Bone

Abstract

For several decades, various approaches have been used to replace bone lost to trauma and disease. In 1908, Lexer¹ described attempts to reconstruct joints with newly amputated or cadaveric allografts. In more recent years, autografts² and allografts^3,4 have been used extensively to replace bone. Several natural or synthetic bone substitutes have also been used alone^5-9 or in conjunction with demineralized bone¹⁰ or autologous bone as vascularized or free (nonvascularized) grafts.^11,12 There have been numerous reports on the use of polypeptides^13,14 or demineralized bone powder^14,15 to stimulate the differentiation of mesenchymal tissue into bone.