It is well known that bone morphogenic proteins (BMP) cause osteogenesis, yet clinical research must be performed in order to really show their benefits. Animals weighing less than 6 kg show well known difficulties regarding radius and ulna fracture repair mainly with bone non-union, due to poor vascularization of the distal portion of the radius. Therefore this study aimed to compare the velocity of bone callus formation in the treatment of fracture repair with plates and screws alone or with plates and screws plus BMP. Thirty three dogs with radius and ulna fractures were distributed into two groups, where animals of the control group received the conservative treatment performed with screws and plates alone, whilst the other group received the conservative treatment and BMP. The time of bone callus formation was evaluated comparatively through radiographic exams 30, 60, 90, 120, 180 and 210 days after the surgical procedure. Animals treated with BMP showed a healing time of 32±15 days, which was significantly different (p <0.001) from the control group which required 127±34 days. With the results obtained, it can be concluded that the distal radio-ulna fractures of dogs weighing less than 6 kg suffered a significant reduction of the bone callus formation time, which was around 90 days.
Bone morphogenic proteins; BMP; bone fractures; bone plate; dogs