Bone Grafts Risk

Just like any other surgical procedure requiring anesthesia, there are certain risks involved even with bone grafts. However, it must be said that based on research, 85 percent of patients requiring bone grafts return to normal life, while 25 percent patients need an additional operation due to the bone graft not healing properly.

Bone grafts can be autografts or allografts. Autograft is when the bone is taken from the patients own body, while allograft is when the bone is taken from a deceased donor. Here are the bone graft risks associated with autograft and allograft.

Autograft Risks and Drawbacks:

The patient needs to be kept under anesthesia for a longer duration of time in order to get the bone from his or her body for the procedure. This can cause problems.
The patient will have pain in the site from where the bone was taken, and there is an added risk of infection.
The amount of bone taken for the graft procedure is usually very small and may not be sufficient for entire region that needs a bone graft.
Infection can set in the bone graft region, and at times this can last for up to 2 years.

With autograft, the chances of rejection are not there but the above mentioned drawbacks and risks are always a cause of concern.

Allograft Risks and Drawbacks:

The bone from the donor takes a longer time to fuse with the patient's bone making the recovery period quite long.
There is a risk of transferring diseases from the donor to the patient.
The patient's immune system may attack the grafted bone and the body may reject it.

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