Iliac Crest Bone Graft Harvesting: Modified Technique for Reduction of Complications

Bone graft harvesting is one of the common procedures in orthopaedics surgery, and iliac crest is the gold standard donor site for autologous bone graft. There are a number of complications related with harvesting iliac crest bone graft, "donor site pain" is the commonest one. We modified the conventional surgical technique for autogenous iliac crest bone graft on patients who underwent anterior cervical decompression/corpectomy and fusion surgeries. Among 23 patients, 18 didn't complain more pain at the donor site compared to the neck pain on the first postoperative day and the wound on the iliac crest did not affect their mobilisation. Mean Visual Analog Score was 2.62±1.80, 1.83±1.41, and 1.10±1.20 at the time of suture removal (14 days), at six weeks and three months respectively. At one year of follow-up, no patient complained of donor site pain. Our surgical modification has encouraging results and thus can be advocated for bone graft. Keywords: bone grafting; complications; iliac crest; pain.