Abstract

ABSTRACT: Standardized tibial osteotomies were created and stabilized with external fixation in twenty-seven skeletally mature rabbits. Fourteen animals were treated with a daily injection ofhuman growth hormone (150 micrograms per kilogram of body weight), and thirteen received a daily injection of saline solution. Serial non-destructive biomechanical tests, radiog-raphy, and determinations of the levels of serum insulin-like growth-factor I were performed for all of the animals. Destructive strength-testing of the sites of osteotomy was performed at four, six, or eight weeks. Twenty-five of the twenty-seven osteotomies healed uneventfully. There were no significant differences in the serial biomechanical measurements at the sites of