Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
new and versatile class of biomaterials and are perceived to be
beneficial in many aspects as bone grafts [36, 1171]. However,
current applications of these biomaterials in medicine and surgery
are still remarkably less than might be expected. In many biomedical
applications, research and testing of such formulations have been
introduced and highly developed but only in a very few cases an
industrial production and commercial distribution of medical
devices partially or entirely made of biocomposites have started.
The medical application of biocomposites and hybrid biomaterials
requires a better understanding of the objectives and limitations
involved. Recently, the main critical issues have been summarized
as follows [265]:
• There are not enough reliable experimental and clinical data
supporting the long-term performance of biocomposites with
respect to monolithic traditional materials.
• The design of biocomposites and hybrid biomaterials is far
more complex than that of conventional monolithic materials
because of the large number of additional design variables
that must be considered.
• The available fabrication methods may limit the possible
reinforcement configurations, may be time consuming,
expensive, highly skilled and may require special cleaning and
sterilization processes.
• There are no satisfactory standards yet for biocompatibility
testing of the biocomposite implants because the ways in
which the different components of any biocomposite interact
to living tissues are not completely understood.
• There are no adequate standards for the assessment of
biocomposite fatigue performance because the fatigue
behavior of such materials is far more complex and difficult to
predict than that of traditional materials [265].
On the other hand, in spite of an enormous progress in
biocomposite processing, to achieve the desired characteristics
researchers still need to develop more advanced technologies to
fabricate a bone-resembling hierarchical organization over several
length scales. Development of novel grafting materials depends
on the progress in research into the structure of natural bones.
The key issues are not only to understand the fundamentals of
biomineralization but also to translate such knowledge into practical
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