Experimental tests on new titanium alloy interbody cervical cages

Abstract

Degenerative diseases of the spine, when not solvable with clinical treatments or with suitable stabilization systems, can be cured by means of the technique of arthrodesis through the interbody fusion of two or more vertebrae. The paper deals with the tests carried out on commercial and innovative cervical cages, used in the primary stabilization of the vertebrae, able to maintain the right distance and to assure the interbody fusion. Additive manufacturing (AM) is a powerful new tool offering the necessary competitiveness to the biomedical manufacturing companies, having the possibility to create materials with controlled porosity combined with solid parts, providing to the workpiece excellent capacity in the subsequent phases of osseointegration. Based on the knowledge developed either in the biomechanics of the spine or in the properties of biocompatibility and osseointegration of titanium alloys, MT Ortho has developed some models of cervical cage made from modern additive printing techniques with titanium alloy. Three different cervical cage made of different materials were subjected to static compression test: a commercial cervical intervertebral cage in PEEK and two cervical intervertebral cages in Ti alloy produced by the EBM process by MT Ortho.Tests on the innovative cage produced by EBM have shown encouraging results. From this first preliminary analysis its showed that the mechanical and functional failure of the innovative devices made in melted Ti alloy by EBM is achieved by load values greater than physiological ones of the cervical spine.