| Περίληψη: | Thanks to recent advances in science and engineering, the field of biomaterials stands poised to increase the effectiveness and longevity of established devices as well as to provide new options to biomedical engineers who work at designing future products.
From its beginning, the field of bioengineering has focused on providing the best artificial devices - hearing aids, artificial limbs and other prostheses - to replace body parts that are missing, broken, or dysfunctional.
Regeneration of body parts requires a biomaterial with a structure, components and chemical signals that allow the body ’s tissue cells to recognize, respond to, and remodel the material without rejecting it as foreign.
Bone, cartilage and the major load bearing joints of the body all suffer degenerative changes with age and trauma. This area of research focus will seek solutions to the problems of osteoporosis, the fixation of implants in bone and the replacement of damaged bone and cartilage. This will be achieved through the development of non-metallic biomaterials and resorbable biomaterials that provide appropriate load bearing characteristics and the potential to interact suitably with the biology.
The non-metallic materials for bone substitutes serve as scaffolds and may have modified surfaces to encourage natural tissue growth or the ability to be seeded with the hosts own cells before implantation. This will have applications for both bone and cartilage substitute materials. These bone substitutes biomaterials are the second-most implanted of all materials.
Resorbable biomaterials, on the other hand, gradually disappear from the body as a result of hydrolysis, because are made from molecules similar to those in the human body, which resorb while the tissue is healing. This eliminates the need for a second surgery.
The goal of this thesis is to explain the usefulness of these biomaterials in medical applications and especially in orthopaedics, focusing on the latest acquisitions.
The first chapter makes an introduction in biomaterials, with emphasis on orthopaedic biomaterials.
The second chapter contains information about: (1) the bone characteristics (anatomy and mechanics), in order to understand the basis for tissue engineered therapies and how damaged bones heal, (2) the non-metallic biomaterials (polymers, biodegradable polymers, ceramics and composites) for bone substitutes, giving examples of modern biomaterials used today and (3) the principles involved in the Modern Cementing Technique.
The third chapter is a review of the chemistry of the polymers used in bioresorbable biomaterials, including synthesis and degradation, describe how properties can be controlled by proper synthetic controls such as copolymer composition, highlight special requirements for processing and handling, and presents in detail some of the commercial resorbable biomaterials.
|
|---|
