Stability assessments and histology of titanium implants placed simultaneously with autogenous onlay bone in the rabbit tibia.

A disc-shaped bone graft was harvested from the calvarium in ten rabbits and anchored as an onlay bone graft, using a titanium implant, at the proximal tibial metaphysis. The contralateral tibia served as the control, where an implant was placed without a graft with the implant head at a height corresponding to the thickness of the graft on the test side. Resonance frequency measurements were performed 4, 8, 16 and 24 weeks postoperatively and removal torque measurements were performed at 24 weeks. A statistically significant higher implant stability, as assessed by resonance frequency measurements (RFM), was measured from 4 weeks throughout the 24-week period. The mean peak removal torque for the test implants was 50.4+/-10.0 Ncm and 30.0+/-6.9 Ncm for the control implants, which was a statistically significant difference. Histologically, the grafted bone was well incorporated and morphometry revealed more bone around the test implants. Calculations of shear stresses indicated that the grafted bone had similar biomechanical properties to the cortical bone of the recipient site. It is concluded that the integration of titanium implants in autogenous onlay bone grafts results in an increased biomechanical support of the implant. The use of RFM may also serve as a useful instrument for noninvasive monitoring of implant stability in vivo.