PURPOSE:

To present our series of patients undergoing pubic bone graft harvest of cancellous bone.  We looked at intraoperative and postoperative complications as well as donor site morbidity.

METHOD:

A retrospective chart review of fifteen patients undergoing open pubic bone graft harvest was performed.  Fourteen patients were performed for repair of alveolar clefts.  One patient was performed for correction of a radial clinodactyly of a thumb in a patient with Apert’s syndrome.

RESULTS:

There were no intraoperative or postoperative complications in our series.  In all patients, a generous amount of cancellous bone was harvested.  All patients underwent an uneventful recovery with minimal donor site pain and all were transitioned to oral analgesics on the first postoperative day.  All patients ambulated on postoperative day 1 with no difficulties and were discharged home on the second or third postoperative day.  There were no donor site infections, hematomas, gait disturbances, nerve injury or donor site contour deformities. 

CONCLUSION:

We previously introduced a new technique for harvesting cancellous bone, the pubic bone graft.  We present here our follow-up of fifteen patients who underwent pubic bone graft harvest.  Our results show that the pubic bone graft harvest is a safe, reliable technique for the harvest of cancellous bone that avoids much of the morbidity of the traditional iliac crest harvest site.