DETERMINING OPTIMAL CURRENT INTENSITY AND DURATION FOR ELECTRICALLY ACTIVATED SILVER-BASED PROPHYLACTIC HIP IMPLANT PROTOTYPE DESIGN

摘要

Through in vitro antibacterial susceptibility experiments, our study reveals that the effectiveness of LIDC-activated silver-based implants depends primarily on the LIDC duration than current intensity, and the marginal effect of both two factors decreases. 24 hr endurance tests prove the diminishing trend in antibacterial effect during long-term usage. On the other hand, the sensitivity of pre-exposed silver anodes to LIDC intensity increases especially at low durations. With consideration of antibacterial effect and human tissue cytotoxicity, it is not necessary to use continuous LIDC. The optimal parameter setting would be applying low current for short intervals (1μa × 1 hr/day) at early stages and gradually increasing the duration. At later stages, the antibacterial effect can be reinforced by further increasing the intensity to the upper limit (5.4 μa × 5 hr/day). We plan to investigate clinical effects through in vivo tests in the near future.