Novel Resorbable Load-Bearing Composites for Medical Devices

摘要

Thanks to their outstanding mechanical properties and versatility the metal devices made of titanium alloys are still the 'golden standard' for the majority of the fracture fixation treatments and widely used in orthopedics. However, they have several significant drawbacks such as bone rupture due to the lack of isoelastic properties with bone and they may cause foreign body reactions, require a secondary removal operation as well as they may interfere X-ray examinations. Non-resorbable polymers such as PEEK, carbon fiber reinforced PEEK, and UHMWPE are gaining markets and will increase their share due to the fact that metals and resorbable polymers cannot meet all the requirements. Non-resorbable polymers or metals do not promote bone growth in the indications where it would be required. Resorbable polymeric devices for osteosynthesis have been successfully used only in low or non-load-bearing applications. Regarding to the mechanical properties of bioresorbable devices no significant improvements have been achieved since the development of self-reinforcement technique1. Tri-calcium phosphate or hydroxyapatite filled resorbable polymers are osteoconductive but lacking true load-bearing ability. The improvement of the bioresorbable devices' mechanical properties and degradation behavior have to be achieved in order to broaden their use in load-bearing applications such as plates, cages and ACL screws. Vivoxid Ltd. is aiming to develop a novel family of fully resorbable load-bearing glass fiber reinforced composites for medical devices. This presentation highlights the development challenges and the latest achievements including unit operations (Figure 1) optimization using design of experiments (DOE) approach, biocompatibility and material properties testing.