In vivo hydroxyapatite scaffold performance in infected bone defects

• Published in: Journal of biomedical materials research. Part B, Applied biomaterials Vol. 108; no. 3; pp. 1157 - 1166
• Main Authors: Pearson, Joseph J., Gerken, Nicholas, Bae, Chunsik, Lee, Kyu‐Bok, Satsangi, Arpan, McBride, Sean, Appleford, Mark R., Dean, David D., Hollinger, Jeffrey O., Ong, Joo L., Guda, Teja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.04.2020; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Amputation; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Autografts; Biomedical materials; bone graft; Bone mineral density; calcium phosphate(s); Complications; Computed tomography; Defects; Euthanasia; Femur; Histology; Hydroxyapatite; infection; Infections; Leukocytes; Materials research; Materials science; Mineralization; Morbidity; Rabbits; Scaffolds; hydroxyapatite; calcium phosphate(s); infection; bone graft
• ISSN: 1552-4973; 1552-4981
• DOI: 10.1002/jbm.b.34466

Critically sized bone defects are often compounded by infectious complications. The standard of care consists of bone autografts with systemic antibiotics. These injuries and treatments lead to donor site morbidity, antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, and often end stage amputation. This study proposes an alternative to the autograft using a porous, hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffold evaluated with and without infection and antibiotics. Twenty‐four New Zealand white rabbits received either our HA scaffold or a pulverized autograft (PBA) within a surgically created critical‐sized defect in the femur. The two grafts were evaluated in either septic or aseptic defects and with or without antibiotic treatment. The HA scaffolds were characterized with micro computed tomography. Post‐euthanasia, micro computed tomography, histology, and white blood cells component analysis were completed. The HA had significantly greater (p < .001) mineralization to total volume than the PBA groups with 27.56% and 14.88%, respectively, and the septic HA groups were significantly greater than the aseptic groups both with and without antibiotics (p = .016). The bone quality denoted by bone mineral density was also significantly greater (p < .001) in the HA groups (67.01 ± 0.38 mgHA/cm3) than the PBA groups (64.66 ± 0.85 mgHA/cm3). The HA scaffold is a viable alternative to the bone autograft in defects with and without infection as shown by the quality and quantity of bone.