Synthetic and Bone tissue engineering graft substitutes: What is the future?

•A history of conventional means for filling critical size bone defects using grafting and bone regeneration techniques.•An introduction as to what materials have so far been used for the creation of bone substitute and vascular augmentation substitutes for a composite bone and vascular void filler.•Possible future directions that will need to be considered in the successful creation of composite vascularized bone void fillers for segmental defects.