Allogeneic bone transplantation in hip revision surgery. Indications and potential for reconstruction

The increasing number of people having joint replacements will lead to increasing numbers of revision operations. The transplantation of allogeneic bones might reconstruct bone defects and improve long-term anchorage of the implant. A sufficient primary stability of the implanted construct is necessary to achieve osseous incorporation as well as tight contact between the implanted allogeneic and host bones. Transplantation of bone can contribute to downgrading acetabular defects and so avoid bigger reinforcement implants. An improvement of bone stock due to reconstruction of femoral bony defects might also reduce the size of the stem necessary since the indication might be limited in case of extensive bone defects. According to good longterm results of modular revision stems the Impaction-Bone-Grafting has not yet generally been established.