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 allografts3,4 have been used extensively to replace bone. Several natural or synthetic bone substitutes have also been used alone5–9 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 polypeptides13,14 or demineralized bone powder14,15 to stimulate the differentiation of mesenchymal tissue into bone. More recently, . . .