Abstract In order to find a new method to repair large bone defect, the free periosteum autograft was investigated in experiment, and then the method was used clinically. In the experiment, a 6mm×18mm×5mm bone defect was made at upper end of both tibiae of 42 rabbites. The periosteum of each rabbit was cut into 1mm cubes, and implanted randomly into the tbial bone defect on one side and the other side was used as control. After 2, 4, 8 weeks, the bone defects of each group were examined for bone formation by roentgenography, radionuclide and histology. The results showed that the defects treated by free periosteum autografts healed twice as fast as the controls (its natural healing). The reason probably was that the periosteum provided with many osteogenic cells. On thebasis of these results, 21 cases of bone defects (the largest was 10.5cm×4cm×4cm, the smallest was 2cm×2cm×2cm) including 17 cases of benign bone tumor and4 cases of chronic osteomyelitis, were treated by free periosteum autografts. The defects were all healed, and the function of the joints was restored.
