SPINE SURGERY;

Complication of iliac crest bone graft harvesting.

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study is to find out the complication directly related to iliac bone graft harvest in spine
surgery. Design: Observational prospective study. Setting: Department of Orthopedic and Spine surgery, Hayatabad Medical Complex
Peshawar. Period: January 2007 to April 2012 on 139 patients. Material and method: Only those cases were included in whom bone
grafting was done for fusion as part of their spine surgery and were successfully followed for at least 6 months. Results: Out of 139
patients 59(42.4%) were female patients while 80(57.6%) were male. Minimum age of the patients was 4 years while maximum was 70
years. In 119(85.6%) patients cortico-cancellous bone graft was taken. While in 20(14.4%) patients, tri-cortical graft was taken. In
majority 106(76.3%) cases graft was obtained from the posterior iliac crest while in 33(23.7%) it was obtained from the anterior iliac
crest. 45(32.4%) had some pain at the bone graft site. 8(5.8%) had early deep infection while 6(4.3%) had early superficial infection. Nine
(6.4%) of our patients had nerve injury evident by parasthesia in the zone of distribution. Conclusions: Iliac crest is an excellent source
and best available material for autogenous bone grafting. However it is not free of complications. The most common complications are
persistent chronic donor site pain, infection and heamatoma.