Core decompression with marrow stem cells

Abstract

Association of core decompression with technique of bone graft is frequent and many different techniques have been described. In this series, grafting was done with autologous bone marrow obtained from the iliac crest of patients operated for hips osteonecrosis. The bone marrow was harvested under general anesthesia. A beveled metal trocar of 6 to 8 cm in length and a bore of 1.5 mm was pushed deep into the cancellous bone. A 10-mL syringe that has been flushed with heparin is used to aspirate the marrow. Once the needle has been inserted to the desired depth, the tip is swept around a full circle in 45° steps, with the bevel pointing in different directions at each step. This procedure is continued until a sufficient quantity of bone marrow has been harvested (150 mL). All the marrow aspirated is discharged into a plastic collection bag containing ACD (acid citrate dextrose) anticoagulant solution. It is then filtered, to remove fat aggregates and clots. The aspirated marrow was reduced in volume by concentration and injected in the femoral head after core decompression with a small trocar. To measure the number of progenitor cells transplanted, we used the fibroblast colony forming unit as an indicator of the stromal cell activity and performed in vitro cultures of the fibroblast progenitor cells. The average volume of bone marrow aspiration was 147 mL ± 12 mL per hip. The number of progenitor cells was average 12.4 ± 3.4 per 10 6 bone marrow nucleated cells and the number of nucleated cells was estimated to be 16.4 million cells per milliliter of bone marrow.