Bone Grafts in Trauma and Orthopaedics

Worldwide, there are millions of patients each year suffering from bone-related illness due to trauma, degenerative diseases, infections or oncology that require orthopaedic intervention involving bone grafts. This literature review aims to analyse the characteristics of the different bone grafts: autografts, allografts and synthetic bone substitutes. The review will assess their medical value based on their effectiveness as well as scrutinising any drawbacks. The goal is to identify which options can give the optimal result for a patient being treated for a bone defect. Bone autografts remain the gold standard since there are no issues with histocompatibility or disease transmission while possessing the ideal characteristics: osteogenicity, osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity. However, synthetic options such as calcium phosphate ceramics are becoming popular as a viable alternative for treatment since they can be produced in desired quantitates and yield excellent results while not having the problem of donor site morbidity as seen with autografts. Furthermore, advancements in fields such as bone tissue engineering and three-dimensional printing are generating promising results and could provide a path for excellent treatment in the future. The emergence of such innovations highlights the importance and the constant need for improvement in bone grafting.