Replacement of an Avulsed Phalanx with Tissue-Engineered Bone

For several decades, various approaches have been used to replace bone lost to trauma and disease. In 1908, Lexer 1 described attempts to reconstruct joints with newly amputated or cadaveric allografts. In more recent years, autografts 2 and allografts 3 , 4 have been used extensively to replace bone. Several natural or synthetic bone substitutes have also been used alone 5 – 9 or in conjunction with demineralized bone 10 or autologous bone as vascularized or free (nonvascularized) grafts. 11 , 12 There have been numerous reports on the use of polypeptides 13 , 14 or demineralized bone powder 14 , 15 to stimulate the differentiation of mesenchymal tissue into bone. More recently, . . .