Abstract
This review discusses and summarizes the recent developments and advances in the use of biodegradable materials for bone repair purposes. The choice between using degradable and non-degradable devices for orthopedic and maxillofacial applications must be carefully weighed. Traditional biodegradable devices for osteosynthesis have been successful in low or mild load bearing applications. However, continuing research and recent developments in the field of material science has resulted in development of biomaterials with improved strength and mechanical properties. For this purpose, biodegradable materials, including polymers, ceramics and magnesium alloys have attracted much attention for osteologic repair and applications. The next generation of biodegradable materials would benefit from recent knowledge gained regarding cell material interactions, with better control of interfacing between the material and the surrounding bone tissue. The next generations of biodegradable materials for bone repair and regeneration applications require better control of interfacing between the material and the surrounding bone tissue. Also, the mechanical properties and degradation/resorption profiles of these materials require further improvement to broaden their use and achieve better clinical results.
Highlights
Bone is a composite natural living tissue which comprises of an organic phase in which calcium containing inorganic phase crystals are embedded [1]
While providing a brief introduction to chemistry and properties of major classes of materials, the main aim of this review is to provide the readers with an update on recent developments in different classes of biodegradable materials for bone repair applications
There are a few criteria for biodegradable polymers in order to be used successfully for bone repair and tissue engineering applications: (i) the polymer surface should allow for cell adhesion and growth to occur; (ii) post implantation in vivo, there should be no inflammatory or toxic response towards the polymer or its degradation products; (iii) have sufficiently high porosity that is interconnected; (iv) have high surface area and adequate space for extracellular matrix; (v) be completely degradable with controlled resorption timing of the scaffold matrix; and lastly (vi) the polymeric material should allow reproducible processing into three dimensional (3D) structures [35,79,183]
Summary
Bone is a composite natural living tissue which comprises of an organic phase in which calcium containing inorganic phase crystals are embedded [1]. Titanium and its alloys have been employed for the majority of fracture fixation treatments [9,10] These metallic devices and implants are not biodegradable and often require a second surgery in order to remove these from the body [10,11,12]. There are limitations and concerns of this approach such as, limited bone supply, donor site morbidity, anatomical, structural and surgical limitations and increased bone resorption during healing [23,24,25,26,27] Other biological sources, such as allograft and xenogenic bone has been evaluated and used with varying clinical success for bone repair and regeneration [6,28]. While providing a brief introduction to chemistry and properties of major classes of materials, the main aim of this review is to provide the readers with an update on recent developments in different classes of biodegradable materials for bone repair applications
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