Physeal Defect Model of Rabbit's Tibia : Conventional Curettage vs Box Osteotome Method

Yoo, Won Joon; Cho, Tae Joon; Lee, Dong Yeon; Lee, Ki Seok

Abstract

PURPOSE
In many previous animal studies on cell therapy to the physeal defect, the defect was made by curetting the physeal cartilage with a scalpel, a syringe needle, or a curette. Authors questioned the validity of this method because it may be accompanied by the risk of incomplete removal of physis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Eight-week-old New Zealand White rabbits were used. In the scalpel group(n=32), a physeal defect was made on the medial half of the bilateral proximal tibiae by the conventional curettage method as previously described. In the box osteotome group (n=16), physis and adjoining eiphyseal and metphyseal bone segments were removed with a box osteotome and a motorized burr.
RESULTS
Histological examination showed that, in the scalpel group, incomplete removal of physeal cartilage was observed in 14 of 38 (37%) tibiae sacrificed between Day 1 and 7, while all of the 20 (100%) in the box osteotome group showed complete removal of physeal cartilage.
CONCLUSION
The results show the high risk of incomplete removal of physeal cartilage with the conventional curettage method. We believe that our method using a box osteotome and a motorized burr is better in terms of ease and validity in creating physeal defect.