Three years ago, the Office of Naval Research and Advanced Ceramics Research partnered to develop a new type of artificial bone capable of supporting new bone growth and porous enough to be absorbed by the body.

In current absorbable orthopedic implant materials, the affected bone is in danger of becoming too weak before substantial mass loss of the implant. With use of current materials such as copolymerized polylactic and polyglycolic acids (PLA/PGA) as bone fillers, patients may find bones are too weak to carry any load long before significant amounts of bone have grown to replace the eroded prosthesis.

An alternative to current implant technologies is a two-stage implant material that is both load bearing and osteoconductive. To achieve this, an interpenetrating network of osteoconductive material and strong (but degradable) biocompatible material is needed. In comparison to conventional prosthesis or scaffold manufacturing routes, rapid prototyping techniques allow implants to be prepared on site, layer by layer, with parts being custom fit to a patient's reconstructive needs. Code from MRI or CT imaging scans would be passed to RP machines which would make the damaged segment from a polymer coated with tricalcium phosphate.

The ceramic coated biocompatible plastic would in turn be broken down over the next 18 months by the body after bone cells had filled the pores in the ceramic. All that would remain of the implant would be some of the original polymer core encased in sturdy bone tissue. .

View the September 04 Metropolis Magazine feature describing the implant process in further detail.

For more information on biomaterials currently in development by ACR, please feel free to contact us at the number below, or by filling out our information request form.