USE OF BONE MARROW (BM) AND CONCENTRATED BONE MARROW ASPIRATE (CBMA) FOR TREATMENT OF CRITICAL LONG FRACTURES

Bone growth is determined by many factors – immobility of bone ends, osteoblastic potency, contact of the bone margins and distance between them. In critically long defects, where the distance between the bone ends is greater than the diameter of the bone, healing processes are compromised because of the limited possibility of bone communication. Applying the gold standard – autotransplantation from a rib, iliac bone, or other donor organ is not always possible, and new healing possibilities are investigated. Synthetic osteoinductive biomaterials such as hydroxyapatite, tricalcium phosphate, collagen, composites, and others are success-fully used as carriers, but their efficacy is limited without their activation by a biological organic autologous osteoinductor. Recent studies have shown that platelet-rich plasma, bone marrow aspirate, or tissue growth factors have an exceptionally high potential for autologous osteoinductors. The purpose of this article is to compare the osteoinductive potential of bone marrow and concentrated bone marrow aspirate in the healing of critically long fractures without autotransplantation.