Bone Surgery Research Paper

Abstract Bone graft procedures, in particular maxillofacial repair, account for half of the orthopedic procedures done in the US each year. Infection is a major issue in surgery, and should be of primary concern when engineering biomaterials. Silver is of renewed importance today, as it has the ability to potentiate antibiotics against resistant bacterial strains. In order to reduce long term infection risks, it is necessary for the scaffold to maintain a silver ion release for the length of the healing process. In this study, silver doped porous β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) scaffolds were engineered using liquid porogen based method with the goal of meeting these requirements. Silver was added to the β-TCP at three different dopant levels:
As a result of this, some of the most crippling ailments are afflictions of the musculoskeletal system, which are bone related diseases and traumas. Although very rarely life threatening today, musculoskeletal diseases including accident related trauma and arthritis, are a heavy burden on society. 50 % of adults over the age of 18 are affected by them only in the USA. 1 Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions was found to affect more than 1.7 billion people worldwide according to a study conducted in 2012.2 The same study also found MSK conditions as the second greatest cause of disability. This burden is only set to increase, driven up by factors such as an ageing population, more active lifestyles, and increased life expectancy. Data from the center for disease control (CDC) shows that in the US in 2010, there were over 5 million surgical procedures on the musculoskeletal system.3 Out of these 5 million procedures, the vast majority treated patients over the age of 30. Over 1 million procedures were total joint replacements, and a further 2 million were bone grafts. On top of these grafts and implants, countless screws, plates, and pins are used to stabilize fractures and
This material property is called osteoconductivity. Osteoconductivity is also increased by the structure of the material, as open pores can provide a three dimensional structure for the bone to regrow as the scaffold dissolves. The advantage of bioresorbable osteoconductive bioceramics is that once the patient is healthy there is no need for removal surgery. However their poor mechanical properties preclude them from being used in load bearing applications. The two most critical material properties for orthopedic grafts are osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity, which describe the material’s ability to further promote cell differentiation, proliferation, and formation of bone structures.7 Two things determine osteoconductivity, both the morphology of the material, in particular porosity, as well as its chemical and bioactive properties. Osteoinductivity is provided by locally delivered growth factors and