Bone
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Bone grafts are commonly used for the treatment of segmental bone defects and fracture non-unions. Recently, osseous particles obtained during intermedullary canal reaming (using a Reamer-Irrigator-Aspirator (RIA) device) have been evaluated as graft material during in vitro and clinical studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate and quantify new bone formation after implantation of bone graft material obtained after reaming of the tibia in a bilateral critical-sized iliac wing defect in sheep and to investigate the effect of the augmentation of this graft. ⋯ RIA bone grafts added a small increase in bone volume to the 3month graft volume in this preclinical sheep model. The current model does not support the use of short-term high concentration dexamethasone for augmentation of a graft volume. If avoidance of an iliac wing graft is desirable, or a reaming procedure is required, then a RIA graft or RIA graft plus β-TCP granules are as good as the current gold standard for this model.