Ilium . It is the largest of the three hip bones of the pelvis , is a large, flattened, cup-like bone with a large anterior ridge and subsequently has four spines that serve as anchor sites for muscles and ligaments. They are also important anatomical landmarks, the iliac crest forms the prominence of the hip and it is a very useful bone to obtain bone implants for some surgeries, due to its easy access and having a lot of bone available, it is also common to obtain bone marrow from there, to treat diseases like leukemia. At its anterior end the ridge forms the superior iliac spine, and just below the end is the anterior inferior iliac spine. The posterior termination forms the iliac spine. superior and inferior form the inferior iliac spine.
Iliac crest graft
An iliac crest graft is a bone graft in which a piece of bone is removed from the upper region of a patient’s pelvis and implanted elsewhere within the patient’s body in that patient. These bone grafts are called autografts and are mainly used to replace bone lost to injury or disease. Bone grafts are used in many parts of the body and aid in the healing of bones that have been fractured or bones that do not form properly at birth.
The ilium is the hip bone. It is made up of a right and a middle left which together creates the wing-shaped pelvic girdle. The iliac crest is the upper curved part of each side of the ilium. A large surface area makes the ilium a favorable site for bone collection to be used in an iliac crest graft.
Harvested bone in the ilium is rich in growth factors and cells that stimulate bone growth. The iliac crest graft can serve as a framework for new bone growth between two pieces of bone. Iliac crest grafts can be inserted between two vertebrae when a spinal fusion is necessary to stabilize the spine . These grafts can also be used to repair the cleft palate, long bone fractures that do not heal.
Advantage
There are advantages to collecting bone from the iliac crest and using it as an autograft. Implantation of bone in the same patient, eliminates any rejection of the grafts that could occur if the body recognizes the graft as foreign. An autograft also reduces the chances of getting diseases from another donor.
Collecting and implanting an iliac crest graft is a surgical procedure performed by an orthopedic surgeon. The patients would be operated under general anesthesia and would have to spend several days in the hospital. The procedure involves two surgical sites, one site in the bone to be repaired and a second site for bone collection in the hip. X-rays are ordered of the area to be repaired before and after surgery to ensure that the graft is implanted correctly.
