Influence of decortication of the donor bone on guided bone augmentation. An experimental study in the rabbit skull bone.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate if early access to the endosteal bone compartment by removal of the outer cortical bone plate will enhance bone augmentation in a secluded space. Two titanium cylinders were placed on the skull of each of 8 rabbits. Each cylinder was placed into a circular slit, secured to the skull bone via two mini-screws and supplied with a titanium lid. On the test side, the outer plate of the cortical bone, demarcated by the slit, was removed. The subsequent bleeding resulted in blood fill of the cylinders to various degrees. On the control side, the corfical bone plate was left intact and no bleeding was observed at the time of the placement of the titanium lids. After 3 months, the animals were sacrificed to obtain histology and histomorphometry. No differences in the total amount of augmented bone tissue, in relation to the total experimental area (75.5% +/- 10.9% at the test sites and 71.2% +/- 13.5% at the control sites) or of the augmented mineralized bone tissue in relation to the total amount of augmented bone tissue, was revealed (17.8% +/- 3.0% and 16.0% +/- 4.9% respectively). There was no difference in the morphological appearance of the augmented bone between test and control sites and there were no obvious similarities in the appearance between the newly formed bone tissue and the donor bone. The augmented bone consisted of slender bone trabeculae, distributed in abundant marrow spaces. A conspicuous finding was that the bone trabeculae tended to climb along the inner walls of the titanium cylinder. It is concluded that decortication of the calvarial bone in the rabbit does not result in more bone formation beyond the skeletal envelope after a healing period of 3 months compared to no removal of the cortical bone plate inside a secluded experimental area.