Goodbye to titanium in orthopedic surgery

Scientists from Russia have developed plates of various shapes that dissolve in the patient's body over time when used in bone fractures.

Scientists at the Department of Biological Nanomaterials at the Korchatov Institute of Scientific Research have produced a substance used in orthopedic surgery as an alternative to titanium plates and other metal parts for the treatment of fractures, thus providing additional operations to remove these mineral substitutes.

Researcher Nikita Sidush said his team had manufactured a "polymeric" material to form these plates used in fracture surgery of "lactic acid" which does not cause any inflammation in use.

Sidoush stressed the possibility of adding some other substances, such as hydroxyapatite (natural element of bone) in the form of nanoparticles of no more than 500 nm, to increase durability and avoid inflammation, and ensure that it melts completely in the body with the passage time to heal.

"This new invention will take its place in orthopedic surgery after completion of clinical trials," said Alexei Lichaghin, an orthopedic surgeon and fractured surgeon at the Moscow State University of Medicine.