The Role of Vitamin C in Enhancement of Fracture Healing in Fracture with Periosteal Stripping at Sprague-Dawley White Rats Femur

Introduction. Fracture Healing still become a problem. There are many things to do to enhance and avoid thecomplication of fracture healing. Vitamin C is one of the ways to enhance the fracture healing. The purpose of thisstudy is to know the role of vitamin C in enhancement the fracture healing in fracture with periosteal stripping atSprague-Dawley white rats femur. The objective of the study is to know the role of vitamin C in enhancement offracture healing in fracture with periosteal stripping at Sprague-Dawley white rats femur by using RUST score andhistomorphometry. Materials and methods. This is an experimental study. This study used 32 rats which were performed fracturizationat the femur, periosteal stripping, internal fixation with K-wire and were given vitamin C supplementation orally indifferent dose, 5 mg, 10 mg, 20 mg and control. The evaluation at the second and fourth week radiologically usingRUST score and histologically using histomorphometry. Results. The RUST score evaluation at the second week showed that the result between groups were not statisticallysignificant but at the fourth week the RUST score showed statistically significant result especially for the groupreceiving 20 mg vitamin C.The histomorphometry evaluation at the second and fourth week showed the enhancementof fracture healing by decreasing the amount of cartilage and increasing amount of woven bone along the study butwere statisically not significant.Conclusions. There is enhancement of fracture healing with supplementation of vitamin C as shown by with RUSTscore evaluation at the fourth week. Histomorphometry evaluation showed enhancement of fracture healing withsupplementation of vitamin C. The larger dose of vitamin C give better histological grade but still not statisticallysignificant. Keywords: Enhancement of fracture healing, vitamin C, RUST score, histomorphometry