Incus Homograft Viability in Cats

Abstract

THE USE of the homograft incus in middle ear reconstructive procedures is presently undergoing widespread consideration.^1-8 Replacing a diseased incus with a normal incus offers the advantages of natural size and shape and ease of procurement as compared with construction of a cortical bone, or an artificial substitute. The mechanism by which the homograft is incorporated into the ossicular chain, however, and the long-term problems of ossicle homografts are not yet fully evaluated. This paper reports our attempts to determine the time at which a homograft incus becomes a viable link in the ossicular chain, the long-term viability and complications of the homografts, and to determine if the bone remains essentially unchanged or if it is replaced by host tissue. Bone Homografts Most of the work on bone homografts and autografts appears in the orthopedic literature.^4-11 Heiple et al¹² have demonstrated with femur and ulna plugs in