In young rabbits, the effect on mandibular growth of autogenous bone grafts in using reconstruction of mandibular defects.

Purpose: We aimed to search the development of the bone grafts that are used for the reconstruction of mandibular defects in the childhood period and also searching the affects of it on the growing up and development of mandible in this study.Material and method: For this reason, a defect is formed on the corpus of the mandible in the young New Zealand rabbits. The defective area is reconstructed by iliac bone graft in one of the groups and by calvarial bone graft in the other group. And in the third group condylectomy was performed with iliac crest bone graft. And than, the development of mandible was searched macroscopically and histologically in the all groups.Results: We observed the growing up of the mandible as underdeveloped in all of the three experimental groups in our study when compared with the control group. There was no difference between iliac crest bone graft group and calvarial bone graft group. The length and height of the mandible in the group that condylectomy was performed with iliac crest bone graft was not important statistically when compared with the group which only iliac crest bone graft was performed. We observed the growing up in the group that iliac crest bone graft + condylectomy was performed as significantly underdeveloped when comparedwhit thecontrol grup. In the control group we observed normal osseous tissue and bound tissue around the bone histologically. Inflamation and necrotic tissue was removed in all groups and no significant difference was observed between the growing up ranks of the new bone formation.Conclusion: In this study we demonstrated that the bone grafts that are used in mandibular defects prevent the growing up of mandible significantly. No important difference about effectiveness was observed between using iliac and calvarial bone graft on the growing up of mandible. For this reason, we think that this result is important for correcting the mandibular defects in the childhood period for both surgeon and the patient. Also we think that our study that has not been researched adequately yet will guide to other researchers for further studies.