This implant heals broken bones while transforming into natural bone (World Economic Forum)
New Bones
When a bone breaks, medical devices and objects like screws and pins are often used to hold the pieces together while the bone heals. But this process can be extremely painful, long, and difficult. One new technological marvel might make these methods obsolete. This potentially game-changing new tool is a 3D printed ceramic implant that holds fractured bones together while turning into actual, natural bone.
Created by Hala Zreiqat at the University of Sydney in Australia and her colleagues, this implant has successfully repaired broken arm bones in rabbits in testing. Additionally, in a soon-to-be-published study, the team tested this ability with large leg fractures in sheep. Despite the small sample, the researchers were encouraged by the fact that the experiment was equally successful in all the eight animals involved in the study.
According to the scientists, the sheep were able to walk immediately after surgery where the implant was placed. However, for four weeks after surgery, the sheep did walk with plaster casts to improve stabilization throughout the healing proce...
