Last updated: 11/24/2009

The risks for any surgical procedure requiring anesthesia include reactions to the medications and breathing problems. Bleeding and infection are also risks of surgery.

There is little risk of graft rejection for autografts, but there are drawbacks:

• additional...
  
  surgical and anesthesia time (typically 30 minutes per procedure) to obtain or harvest the bone for grafting
• added costs for the additional surgery
• pain and infection at the site from which the graft is taken
• the relatively small amount of bone available for grafting
• surgical complications, such as infection and pain that sometimes last a longer period of time than the primary surgery (up to two years)

Allografts also have drawbacks:

• Bone variability because it is harvested from a variety of donors.
• Grafted bone may take longer to incorporate with the host bone (than in an autograft).
• Graft may be less effective than an autograft.
• Possibility of transferring diseases to the patient.
• Potential immune response complications (patient's immune system fighting against the grafted bone tissue). This problem is lessened through the use of anti-rejection drugs.