VITALLIUM SKULL PLATES

Abstract

Defects of cranial bone are not uncommon. All sorts of materials have been used in attempts to close these defects during the past four centuries. Animal bone,¹celluloid,²aluminum,³gold,⁴silver,⁵platinum,⁶autogenic⁷and heterogenic⁷bone grafts, cartilage,⁸sliding grafts of cranial bone,⁹decalcified bone,¹⁰buttons of bone¹¹and chips of bone¹²have been used. There has been a great variation of opinion concerning the use of these materials. Most of the materials caused a reaction as to a foreign body and sloughed out or had to be removed. This is particularly true of all the materials except autogenic bone grafts. Because of this reaction all operations involving metal plates had been discarded. Grant and Norcross¹³have made an exhaustive search of the literature on this subject and have described all the known methods of cranioplasty