Table 1.

Fracture callus histological scoring

Treatment group	Fracture callus score
Control (no treatment)	36.0
Binge alcohol/saline	4.0
Saline/lithium chloride	24.0
Binge alcohol/lithium chloride	45.0

Histological sections of fracture callus from each treatment group (N = 2/group) were blinded and scored by a board-certified pathologist not associated with the study. Callus tissue was scored by determining the percent of the external callus comprised of cartilage tissue and the percent of this cartilage tissue containing hypertrophic chondrocytes. These two percentage numbers were multiplied to each other and then to 100 to obtain a callus score. Numbers obtained were compared with a fracture callus from control animals to assess effects of alcohol and lithium treatment on cartilaginous callus formation.