New Treatment Aspects in Alveolar Cleft Repair

In this thesis, preclinical and clinical evidence is gathered to bypass donor site morbidity in alveolar cleft repair when using autologous bone. A calcium phosphate based scaffold is used in vivo and in a clinical trial for this purpose. The clacium phosphate based scaffold used is a >90% phase pure Beta Tricalciumphosphate scaffold that is attributed both osteoconductive and osteoinductive properties. In order to reliably assess the reconstructed alveolar cleft defect a novel semi-automatic segmentation protocol is described. This thesis shows that reconstruction of the alveolar cleft defect by means of Beta Tricalcium Phosphate is both safe and effective.