Clinical Results of Minimally Invasive Graft Harvesting from the Anterior Iliac Crest: Description of a Novel Technique

Aim: Autologous bone harvesting is the gold standard for grafting in a variety of orthopaedic procedures.
The aims of this study were to introduce an alternative technique of K-wire guided, multidirectional
percutaneous bone graft harvesting with Jamshidi from the anterior iliac crest, and to put forward the early
comparative clinical results of this technique.
Patients and Methods: 38 patients, who underwent a variety of hand surgeries in which bone grafting was
required between January and November 2013, were included in this retrospective, comparative study.
The included diagnoses of the patients were; non-unions of hand and wrist bone fractures, and benign
bone tumors. The prospectively collected data of patients were retrospectively evaluated in two groups.
Iliac crest autograft harvesting were performed with a standardized open technique, and with a novel
percutaneous technique -which will be described in the subsequent section- in group I, and II, respectively.
The mean age of the patients was 29.6 +/- 6.4, and 28.6 +/- 8.2 in group I, and II, respectively. The patients’
postoperative pain related with the perception of the pain and surgical scar, were evaluated according to the
graded Visual Analogue Scale; at postoperative 6th months. Statistically , Mann-Whitney U test was used.
Results: There were no major postoperative complications in the percutaneous group. Regarding pain,
mid-term at postoperative 6th months, VAS scores were found to be lower in group II than in group I,
significantly (p< 0.05).
Conclusion: The novel K-wire guided bone graft harvesting with Jamshidi from the iliac crest is a safe and
patient-friendly method in terms of postoperative pain reduction. This technique is useful in small joint and
bone surgeries, requiring bone grafting. The results of this study should be further supported with higher
level of evidence studies.