Surgical treatment of aseptic forearm nonunion with plate and opposite bone graft strut. Autograft or allograft?

Adequate treatment of forearm nonunion should achieve both biological stimulation of the bone and mechanical stability. The use of bone graft could enhance the healing of a nonunion providing osteogenic, osteoconductive and osteoinductive stimulation and an optimal stability of the fixation. We retrospectively reviewed two cohorts of patients affected by forearm nonunion and treated with plate and opposite bone graft to determine whether the use of autograft versus allograft differs in terms of (1) rate of healing of the nonunion and (2) time of healing.