[The reamer--a new instrument for simplified harvesting of donor bone from the iliac crest].

Harvesting donor bone from the iliac crest site to fill gaps in bone defects is a simple operation but there are still reports of many complications occurring in the bone harvesting process. We now describe a procedure that significantly decreases the morbidity of the donor site. Reports on the iliac crest miller modified according to Krimmer that was applied on 40 patients (average age: 68 years) afforded results that were compared with data collected from the use conventional methods (average age: 65 years). The average length of the skin incision of 41 mm was significantly shorter than the incision length recorded in connection with the conventional methods, namely 79 mm. The harvesting time was limited to 7.6 minutes instead of 18 minutes und thus was also significantly shorter. The postoperative pain as measured on the basis of a visual analogue scale (0 to 100 points) was as follows: pain records were lower than those of the control group by 29 points on the second day following the operation, by 25 points on the fourth day, and by 17 points on the 12th day following the operation. No complications were observed. In the control group there were three haematomas, two cicatricial dehiscences, one cicatricial keloid and one loss of sensibility. This new procedure fulfils the demands for a minimally invasive technique.