Grafting – Basic Principles and Surgical Applications, Part II

Grafting of blood vessels and nerves are essential surgical techniques which are used to restore continuity in cases of acute or chronic vascular or nervous damage. Due to superior outcomes autologous grafts are generally preferred over allografts or alloplastic grafts. Bone, cartilage and tendons are physiologically subjected to various degrees of mechanical stress, which has been observed to play a critical role in graft survival and remodeling. Bone grafting is used to replace missing bone or to enhance new bone formation in the treatment of fractures, delayed or non-unions or in reconstructive surgery after trauma or tumor resection. Unlike bone, cartilage and tendons have a low capacity for self-renewal due their avascular nature and low cellularity which presents challenges to graft survival and healing rates. This review contains 2 figures, and 68 references.  Keywords: autograft, allograft, vascular grafting, nerve grafting, bone grafting, cartilage grafting, tendon grafting, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine