Morbidity of harvesting of bone grafts from the iliac crest for preprosthetic augmentation procedures: A prospective study

It has been the aim of the present prospective clinical study to assess the morbidity following the harvest of bone from the anterior and posterior ilium in elective preprosthetic augmentations. Fifty consecutive healthy patients (30 female, 20 male, mean age 52.5 +/- 9.3 years, range 31 years to 65 years) underwent augmentations of implant sites by iliac crest bone grafts. The bone harvest was carried out in 25 cases from the anterior and in 25 cases from the posterior ilium. The superficial sensory function of the skin was determined quantitatively preoperatively, 7 and 30 days after surgery with the 'Pain and Thermal Sensitivity' Test (PATH Test). On the same occasions subjective pain on a visual analogue scale (VAS) and gait disturbances were documented. In the PATH Test, for the innervation areas of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN) and the superior,and middle cluneal nerves (SMCN) a significant impairment of the superficial sensory function could be found after I week and a significant tendency towards recovery after 1 month (warm stimulus(LFCN) (preop): 37.94 +/- 3.0degreesC, warm stimulus(LFCN) (day 7): 38.6 +/- 3.2degreesC, warm stimulus(LFCN) (day) (30): 37.9 +/- 2.9degreesC, P-LFCN (warm preop/day 7) =0.023 P-LFCN (warm) (preop/day 30) =0,886, warm stimulus(SMCN) (preop): 36.1 +/- 2.4degreesC, warm stimulus(SMCN day) (7): 36.6 +/- 2.3degreesC, warm stimulus(SMCN) (day 30): 36.3 +/- 4.0degreesC; P-SMCN (warm preop/day 7)<0.0005, P-SMCN (warm preop/day 30)=0.086). Gait disturbances were seen in seven patients after anterior and in three patients after posterior bone harvest 7 days after surgery(P-gait disturbance anterior/posterior =0.123). After 1 month none of the patients of both groups showed gait disturbances any longer. The maximum subjective pain level was found on the second postoperative day in both groups. It was significantly higher for the anterior approach (VAS(anterior) (day 2) 7.0 +/- 1.5, VAS(posterior day 2) 5.5 +/- 1.8 P-VAS anterior/posterior day 2 =0.004). At day 7 and at day 30, the pain levels did no longer differ significantly (VAS(anterior day 7) 3.7 +/- 1.4, VAS(posterior day 7) 3.2 +/- 1.6 P-VAS anterior/posterior day 7 = 0.165, VAS(anterior day) (30) 1.4 +/- 0.7, VAS(posterior day 30) 1.4 +/- 0.8, P-VAS anterior/posterior day 30 =0.724). Because of the lower morbidity of bone harvest from the posterior ilium in the early postoperative phase compared to the anterior approach it seems that it should be preferred in elective augmentation procedures.