Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
9000 years old. This individual, described by archeologists as a tall,
healthy, active person, wandered through the region now known as
southern Washington with a spear point embedded in his hip. It had
apparently healed in and did not significantly impede his activity.
This unintended implant illustrates the body's capacity to deal with
implanted foreign materials. The spear point has little resemblance
to modern biomaterials, but it was a tolerated foreign material
implant, just the same [162].
Later, man's attempts to repair the human body with the use of
implant materials were recorded in the early medical writings of
the Hindu, Egyptian and Greek civilizations. The earliest successful
implants were in the skeletal system. For example, the famous
painting by Fra Angelico (ca. 1395-1455) “The Healing of Justinian
by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian” (Fig. 8.2) a visualization of the
legend of twins Sts. Cosmas and Damien (died ca. 287 AD) depicting
a transplantation of a homograft limb onto an injured soldier, is one
early instance of the vision of a regenerative medicine. Historically,
a selection of the materials was based on their availability and an
ingenuity of the individual making and applying the prosthetic
[163]. Archaeological findings exhibited in museums showed that
materials used to replace missing human bones and teeth included
animal or human (from corpses) bones and teeth, shells, corals,
ivory (elephant tusk), wood, as well as some metals (gold or silver).
For instance, the father of Western medicine Hippocrates (ca. 460
BC-ca. 370 BC) apparently used gold wire and linen thread for
ligatures in the repair of bone fractures. Aulus Cornelius Celsus (ca.
25 BC-ca. 50 AD) recommended the filling of large cavities with lint,
lead and other substances before attempting extraction to prevent
the tooth from breaking under the pressure of the instrument. This
may have been the beginning of filling materials for carious teeth.
The Etruscans learned to substitute missing teeth with bridges
made from artificial teeth carved from the bones of oxen, while in
ancient Phoenicia loose teeth were bound together with gold wires
for tying artificial ones to neighboring teeth. Popp states that ancient
Egyptians also made artificial ears, noses and eyes [164]. The Chinese
recorded the first use of dental amalgam to repair decayed teeth in
the year 659 AD, while in Americas the pre-Columbian civilizations
used gold sheets to heal cranial cavities following trepanation
[165]. Besides, while excavating Mayan burial sites in Honduras in
1931, archaeologists found a fragment of mandible of Mayan origin,
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