In vivo hydroxyapatite scaffold performance in infected bone defects

Critically sized bone defects are often compounded by infectious complications. The standard of care consists of bone autografts with systemic antibiotics. These injuries and treatments lead to donor site morbidity, antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, and often end stage amputation. This study proposes an alternative to the autograft using a porous, hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffold evaluated with and without infection and antibiotics. Twenty‐four New Zealand white rabbits received either our HA scaffold or a pulverized autograft (PBA) within a surgically created critical‐sized defect in the femur. The two grafts were evaluated in either septic or aseptic defects and with or without antibiotic treatment. The HA scaffolds were characterized with micro computed tomography. Post‐euthanasia, micro computed tomography, histology, and white blood cells component analysis were completed. The HA had significantly greater (p