Bone Substitutes: From Basic to Current Update

Financial support: None. Conflict of interests: None. Bone substitutes are being used increasingly in bony surgery as more than two million bone grafts are performed worldwide per year. Autobone grafts represent the gold standard for bone grafting, but morbidity and limited availability are the main problems. Allobone grafts are osteoconductive, but there are still concerns regarding the infection risks, costs, and donor availability issues. As an alternative, widely used ceramic-based synthetic bone substitutes are based alternatively on calcium (hydroxyapatite, tricalcium phosphate, calcium sulfate, calcium phosphate). Ceramic-based bone substitutes are osteoconductive, but they are weaker than cortical bone and are not osteoinductive. Bone morphogenic protein, demineralized bone matrix, and platelet-rich plasma are used to obtain an osteoinductive function. Recently, cell-based and gen-based bone substitutes were developed and studied. This paper reviews the basic information and the latest concepts on bone grafts and bone substitutes.