This paper studies the difference between cortical and cancellous bone healing. We have earlier reported that trauma to the metaphyseal tibia is resistant to anti-inflammatory agents, whereas the femoral osteotomy decreases roughly 50% in strength. Prompted by these results, we evaluated the metaphyseal tibia’s cell composition with flow cytometry during healing. In this paper, we compare the cell composition of the traumatized metaphyseal tibia and a femoral cortical defect. Needle trauma with a bent nook to the metaphyseal tibia produces mainly cancellous bone trauma with minimal cortical healing. Milling of the femoral cortex produces a ridge of cortical bone healing. These models allow comparison of cortical and cancellous bone healing under equal conditions of stability and loading. We found that the cancellous and cortical model are quite equal in cell composition at day 3, but have diverged at day 5. Cancellous bone healing had attracted myeloid cells whereas cortical bone healing had attracted lymphocytes. This paper contributes to the notion that results from shaft fractures are not directly transferable to metaphyseal bone healing.