Safety, technical & medical

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  • New bone healing therapies

    Sponsored by IFAI Expo

    Of the 6 million bone fractures that occur each year, 10 percent exhibit insufficient healing due to improper fixation, metabolic disturbances or impaired blood supply. Such fractures are more likely to occur in the elderly population due to degenerative diseases including osteoporosis. With more than 20% of the population over the age of 65 by 2025, there is an urgent need for improved bone healing therapies.

    Current treatment strategies such as bone grafts, metals, and bioceramics suffer from limitations related to availability, potential for disease transfer, compliance issues and fabrication challenges.

    As an alternative to existing approaches, composite scaffolds fabricated from biodegradable polymers and bioceramic compounds aim to maximize the benefits while addressing the limitations of each component. These materials enable one to tailor the stiffness, porosity and degradation for specific patients or bone defect sites. Such composites have been generated using a variety of synthetic polymers and ceramics, but the contribution of the ceramic toward bone repair is more challenging to understand.