The modern healthcare industry is a broad one, and surgeons today can replace or repair many different kinds of tissues. That ranges from heart transplants to installing metal plates to grafting bone material, and a universal graft gun is one of several modern innovations in that field. A bone graft delivery system may be simple and convenient for the surgeons to use, and that can make for a faster and safer bone transplant procedure. Bone grafting technology has come a long way, and bone repair may even involve using synthetic bone material in some cases. Still, many patients prefer to have real human bone material used, so a surgeon may end up inserting allografts or autografts with a universal graft gun. These universal graft guns may be easily acquired through the robust American medical supply sector, and a universal graft gun may be used for autografts and allografts alike. What else is there to know about bone grafting today?
All About Bone Grafts
Many Americans each year will need bone grafts for one reason or another, and typically, a bone may heal within 10 weeks or so. Meanwhile, a 16-year study was recently completed to track bone grafting in the United States, and it found that 83% of all bone grafts were autogenous bone grafts, and 17% involved one graft substitutes. That same study also found that in the United States, more and more patients are starting to take an interested in bone graft substitutes. In any case, why might someone need a bone graft at all? Four particular reasons are the most common: if the patient has multiple fractures that are not healing properly, needing fusion to help two bones heal across a damaged joint, bone regeneration after injury or disease, and finally, for healing bones after implanting medical devices. In any of these cases, a universal graft gun can be quite helpful, and a patient may choose whether to get bone material from their own body or a donor for that procedure.
Autografts and Allografts
There are reasons to choose either route, and a patient may express their preference before they undergo a bone graft procedure. An autograft will use bone tissue from the patient’s own body, and in this way, the blood types are guaranteed to match, and the replaced bone material can still produce red blood cells. Most often, such material is borrowed from the chin or other non vital bone areas of the body. It may be noted, though, that using this method means extra surgery, and that may increase the odds of a complication. By contrast, an allograft will use bone tissue from a donor, often someone who is already deceased. A recently deceased person may have their bones removed and tested, and if those bones are clean, they can be put into cold storage. Such bone material may be high demand for transplant purposes, though the bones are dead, meaning that matching blood types will not be an issue. In some cases, a living patient n the hospital may provide living bone tissue of the proper blood type, such as a patient undergoing an amputation.
Whichever bone transplant method is used, the surgery site may involve cutting open the patient’s skin, using a universal graft gun, and closing that wound again. Screws, plates, and wires may be used to help hold the new bone material in place and allow it to heal, and the patient may receive additional guidance from their doctors on how to handle the post-op recovery process. It may take some time for the joint’s swelling, redness, and pain to go away.
