Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
in the forms of powders, granules and/or coatings. An expansion of
bioceramics to the health care has been characterized by a significant
increasing in the number of publications and patents in this field and
an ever-increasing number of major international conferences and
themed meetings [2-6].
Interestingly, but the chemical elements used to manufacture
bioceramics form just a small set of the Periodic Table. Namely,
bioceramics might be prepared from alumina, zirconia, magnesia,
carbon, silica-contained and calcium-contained compounds, as
well as some other chemicals [4]; however, this chapter is further
limited to calcium orthophosphates only. Calcium orthophosphate-
based biomaterials and bioceramics are now used in a number of
different applications throughout the body, covering all areas of
the skeleton. Applications include dental implants, percutaneous
devices and use in periodontal treatment, healing of bone defects,
fracture treatment, total joint replacement (bone augmentation),
orthopedics, cranio-maxillofacial reconstruction, otolaryngology,
ophthalmology and spinal surgery [3-7]. Depending upon the
required properties, different calcium orthophosphates might be
used. For example, Fig. 4.1 shows some randomly chosen samples of
the commercially available calcium orthophosphate bioceramics for
bone graft applications.
Figure 4.1
Several examples of the commercial calcium orthophosphate-
based bioceramics.
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