Radiographic healing and remodelling of cortical and cancellous bone grafts after rigid plate fixation. Experiments in the rabbit.

Cortical and cancellous interposition grafts, with rigid plate fixation, in the tibiofibular bones of 130 rabbits were followed radiographically for one year. The cancellous grafts healed earlier, but by 12 weeks both graft types had been incorporated, the distal host--graft interface being the last to heal. Progressive cancellous transformation in both the graft and host bone led to an increased over-all bone diameter, a widened medullary canal and a thinned porotic wall.