Purpose: To assess bone regeneration in critical sized defects in the rabbit calvarium, filled with the bone substitute calcium phosphate cement.
Material and methods: Circular bone defects (8mm) were made in both parietal bones of 10 rabbits. One of the defects was filled with the calcium phosphate cement, and the other received autogenous bone harvested from the calvaria. The animals were killed at 3 or 6 weeks (n=5). Data analysis included qualitative assessment of the calvarial specimens and histomorphometric analysis was used to quantify the amount of new bone within the defects.
Results: The microscopic analysis of the samples showed bone healing with both calcium phosphate cement and autogenous bone graft. Data obtained from the histomorphometric analysis were statistically analyzed using 2-way analysis of variance and the Tukey's test. Data analysis showed that the autogenous bone graft had significantly more new bone compared with calcium phosphate cement at 3 and 6 weeks. Calcium phosphate cement at 6 weeks presented similar results to autogenous bone at 3 weeks. Both treatments presented an increase in bone healing with time.
Conclusion: Treatments allowed bone regeneration that increased with time, however surgical cavities treated with the autogenous graft had more bone formation than those with calcium phosphate cement.