Autologous bone graft: Is it still the gold standard? *

Bone grafting has over 100 years of successful clinical use. Despite the successes of autograft bone transplantation, complications of bone grafting are significant, mostly at the donor site. This article reviews the biology of fracture healing, the properties of bone grafts, and reviews the specific advantages and problems associated with autograft bone. Recent techniques such as the Reamer Irrigator Aspirator are described, which has dramatically reduced complications of bone autograft harvesting. @& nbsp;2021 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )

Automated summary

Bone grafting has a long history of successful clinical use, with autograft bone transplantation being the most common approach despite its associated complications. This article reviews the biology of fracture healing, the properties of bone grafts, and the specific advantages and problems of autograft bone. Recent techniques such as the Reamer Irrigator Aspirator have significantly reduced complications in bone autograft harvesting.