SPECIALLY TREATED SEA-CORAL SUCCEEDS AS BONE GRAFT (Orthopedics This Week)
Sea coral is back and may be better than ever—as bone graft.
Of course, the problem for surgeons requiring bone graft material is well understood. Autograft (pieces of bone taken from other parts of the body and implanted where bones are injured) work but they cause pain in the places where the bone was removed. Artificial bone grafts made from calcium compounds are strong, have a porous structure that provides a scaffold for new bone cells to grow on but are slow to heal. Also, they do not completely dissolve in the body.
Zhidao Xia, Ph.D., of Swansea University, the United Kingdom, is conducting research on new materials for bone grafts. He notes, “When biomaterials do not biodegrade and remain in skeletal tissue, they may continuously cause problems in the host. In extreme conditions, it is possible that the different mechanical properties of the artificial bone graft may cause a re-fracture or become a source for bacterium growth in infection.”
This problem may have been overcome through the use of specially processed coralline hydroxyapatite (CHA), made from calcium carbonate found in sea coral shells ....
