What are bone substitutes or scaffolds?

Scaffolds or bone substitutes are the structure on which the body can regenerate bone. They can be either biological or synthetic. Biological ones can be of human origin, such as bone tissue from the patient (autologous) or donor tissue (bone bank or bone from a cadaver), or of animal origin (properly treated horse, cow or pig bone).

Synthetic bone substitutes are produced in a laboratory and replicate the structure and composition of bone. Hydroxyapatite, tricalcium phosphate and bioceramics are the most frequent used.