Summary
The clinical use of β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) as a synthetic cancellous bone
graft in veterinary orthopaedics is herein reported. The retrospective study was based
on 13 clinical cases belonging to 11 dogs and one cat. The weights of the dogs ranged
from 3.4 to 48 kg. One female cat weighing 3.5 kg completed the study. The clinical
cases were six arthrodeses (four carpal, two tarsal), one hypertrophic non-union (femur),
one atrophic non-union (metacarpal bones) and five long-bone fractures (two femurs,
one tibia, two radii) possessing subcritical-sized bone defects. The β-TCP used in
this study was presented as irregular interconnected-porous granules and was placed
in the bone defects after mixing it with fresh blood. Bone healing was achieved at
between eight and 12 weeks in all clinical cases except for the case of the chronic
atrophic nonunion in which only one of the four metacarpal bones healed. In the 12
successful cases, the bone defect grafted with β-TCP showed a radiological bone ingrowth
of 100% (10 cases), 90% (one case) and 75% (one case). The complete lack of tissue
adverse effects in our series, and the good defect healing, allows us to hypothesise
that β-TCP can be successfully used as a synthetic bone graft in bone defects with
good local biological conditions and where osteoconduction is especially needed for
assuring a structural scaffold for newbone ingrowth. When, in addition to osteoconduction,
osteoinduction and osteogenesis are necessary for defect healing, the fresh cancellous
bone graft remains the gold standard in veterinary orthopaedics.
Keywords
β-tricalcium phosphate - bone grafting