Morphological Aspects of Bone Regeneration in Cortical Bone Lengthening Using Ilizarov’s Technique

The replacement of a large section of defective cortical bone remains a difficult problem which faces the surgeon when dealing with a tumor resection or bone lengthening. This is particularly true in adults. Auto- and/or allografting usually is the adopted treatment. With wider recognition of Ilizarov’s technique, the stimulation of the regenerative capacity of bone has gained interest as another management approach for larger bone defects. Most of the available surface of bone (periosteum, Haversian canal, endosteum) is covered by lining cells that are able to differentiate into osteogenic or chondrogenic cells under an appropriate stimulus and environment (Bassett and Herrmann 1961; Matthews 1980; Simmons 1980; Coutelier and Delloye 1983).