Experimental Use of Autogenous Bone Grafts as an Alternative Method for Bone Plates in Treatment of Mandibular Fracture

Mandibular fractures have a high incidence among facial bone fractures that necessitated prompt treatment. The use of autogenous graft as a fixation device for mandibular fracture may have an important role in bone healing with accepted biological effect, and normal bone growth especially in pediatric patients. Moreover it avoids the side effect of both inter maxillary fixation (IMF) and bone plates. The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of autogenous bone graft for fixation of mandibular body fracture in dogs, both histologically and radiographically. Nine male mongrel dogs were included in this study. Fracture lines were induced in their mandibular bodies followed by their fixation using autogenous bone grafts harvested from fracture sites. The grafts were rotated by 90 degrees to the fracture lines and fixed with 4 bicortical titanium screws at their corners. The radiographic examination is performed at one, three and six weeks after surgery. The animals were sacrificed after six weeks of surgical procedures for histological examinations. Four dogs showed initial healing of induced fracture line with integration of the bone graft to the underlying lingual cortical plate through woven bone formation at six weeks postoperatively. While three animals exhibited failure of the graft to fix the fracture and two cases were excluded from the study due to fracture of the harvested graft during its fixation. It could be concluded that this technique could be an alternative treatment modality in fracture fixation but with favorable fracture with stable bony segment in order to achieve proper bone healing.