A comparison of freeze-dried allogeneic and fresh autologous vascularized rib grafts in dog radial discontinuity defects.

The limitations of autologous vascularized grafts include morbidity at the donor site and the increased surgical time associated with graft retrieval. To overcome these limitations, freeze-dried allogeneic and fresh autologous vascularized rib grafts were compared in 6-cm mid-radial defects of dogs. There was no statistically significant difference between the two graft systems when postoperative radiographs, in vivo intraarterial angiograms, and histologic evaluation of vessel patency were compared. However, clinical assessment of graft stability favored the autologous grafts, and force deflection tests revealed that the freeze-dried grafts had only 64% of the graft strength of the fresh autologous grafts at the end of the experiment at 26 weeks.