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Bioresorbable Metal
Bioresorbable (also called biodegradable or bioabsorbable) metals are metals or their alloys that degrade safely within the body. The primary metals in this category are magnesium-based and iron-based alloys, although recently zinc has also been investigated. Currently, the primary uses of bioresorbable metals are as stents for blood vessels (for example bioresorbable stents) and other internal ducts. Background Although bioabsorbable polymers and other materials have come into widespread use in recent years, degradable metals have not yet had the same success in the medical industry. Driving force for development The driving force behind the development of bioresorbable metals is primarily due to their ability to provide metal-like mechanical properties while degrading safely in the body. This is especially relevant in orthopaedic applications, where although many surgeries only require implants to provide temporary support (allowing the surrounding tissue to heal), the majority ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stent
In medicine, a stent is a metal or plastic tube inserted into the lumen of an anatomic vessel or duct to keep the passageway open, and stenting is the placement of a stent. A wide variety of stents are used for different purposes, from expandable coronary, vascular and biliary stents, to simple plastic stents that allow urine to flow between kidney and bladder. "Stent" is also used as a verb to describe the placement of such a device, particularly when a disease such as atherosclerosis has pathologically narrowed a structure such as an artery. A stent is different from a shunt. A shunt is a tube that connects two previously unconnected parts of the body to allow fluid to flow between them. Stents and shunts can be made of similar materials, but perform two different tasks. Stent types Etymology The current accepted origin of the word ''stent'' is that it derives from the name of an English dentist, Charles Thomas Stent (1807–1885), notable for his advances in the fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bioresorbable Stent
In medicine, a stent is any device which is inserted into a blood vessel or other internal duct to expand it to prevent or alleviate a blockage. Traditionally, such devices are fabricated from metal mesh and remain in the body permanently or until removed through further surgical intervention. A bioresorbable stent (also called bioresorbable scaffold, biodegradable stent or naturally-dissolving stent) serves the same purpose, but is manufactured from a material that may dissolve or be absorbed in the body. Background The use of metal drug-eluting stents presents some potential drawbacks. These include a predisposition to late stent thrombosis, prevention of late vessel adaptive or expansive remodeling, hindrance of surgical revascularization, and impairment of imaging with multislice CT. To overcome some of these potential drawbacks, several companies are pursuing the development of bioresorbable scaffolds or bioabsorbable stents. Like metal stents, placement of a bioresorb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stress Shielding
Stress shielding is the reduction in bone density (osteopenia) as a result of removal of typical stress from the bone by an implant (for instance, the femoral component of a hip prosthesis). This is because by Wolff's law Wolff's law, developed by the German anatomist and surgeon Julius Wolff (surgeon), Julius Wolff (1836–1902) in the 19th century, states that bone in a healthy animal will adapt to the loads under which it is placed. If loading on a particular ..., bone in a healthy person or animal remodels in response to the loads it is placed under. Porous implantation is one typical alleviation method. References Orthopedic surgical procedures Skeletal disorders {{musculoskeletal-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biodegradability
Biodegradation is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. It is generally assumed to be a natural process, which differentiates it from composting. Composting is a human-driven process in which biodegradation occurs under a specific set of circumstances. The process of biodegradation is threefold: first an object undergoes biodeterioration, which is the mechanical weakening of its structure; then follows biofragmentation, which is the breakdown of materials by microorganisms; and finally assimilation, which is the incorporation of the old material into new cells. In practice, almost all chemical compounds and materials are subject to biodegradation, the key element being time. Things like vegetables may degrade within days, while glass and some plastics take many millennia to decompose. A standard for biodegradability used by the European Union is that greater than 90% of the original material must be converted into , water and minerals by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydrogen Gas
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, and highly combustible. Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical substance in the universe, constituting roughly 75% of all normal matter.However, most of the universe's mass is not in the form of baryons or chemical elements. See dark matter and dark energy. Stars such as the Sun are mainly composed of hydrogen in the plasma state. Most of the hydrogen on Earth exists in molecular forms such as water and organic compounds. For the most common isotope of hydrogen (symbol 1H) each atom has one proton, one electron, and no neutrons. In the early universe, the formation of protons, the nuclei of hydrogen, occurred during the first second after the Big Bang. The emergence of neutral hydrogen atoms throughout the universe occurred about 370,000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
In Vivo
Studies that are ''in vivo'' (Latin for "within the living"; often not italicized in English) are those in which the effects of various biological entities are tested on whole, living organisms or cells, usually animals, including humans, and plants, as opposed to a tissue extract or dead organism. This is not to be confused with experiments done ''in vitro'' ("within the glass"), i.e., in a laboratory environment using test tubes, Petri dishes, etc. Examples of investigations ''in vivo'' include: the pathogenesis of disease by comparing the effects of bacterial infection with the effects of purified bacterial toxins; the development of non-antibiotics, antiviral drugs, and new drugs generally; and new surgical procedures. Consequently, animal testing and clinical trials are major elements of ''in vivo'' research. ''In vivo'' testing is often employed over ''in vitro'' because it is better suited for observing the overall effects of an experiment on a living subject. In dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bioabsorbable Metallic Glass
Bioresorbable (or bioabsorbable) metallic glass is a type of amorphous metal, which is based on the ''Mg-Zn-Ca ternary system''. Containing only elements which already exist inside the human body, namely Mg, Zn and Ca, these amorphous alloys are a special type of biodegradable metal. History The first reported metallic glass was an alloy (Au75Si25) produced at Caltech by W. Klement (Jr.), Willens and Duwez in 1960. This and other early glass-forming alloys had to be cooled extremely rapidly (in the order of one mega- kelvin per second, 106 K/s) to avoid crystallization. An important consequence of this was that metallic glasses could only be produced in a limited number of forms (typically ribbons, foils, or wires) in which one or more dimensions were small so that heat could be extracted quickly enough to achieve the necessary cooling rates. As a result, metallic glass specimens (with a few exceptions) were limited to thicknesses of less than one hundred micrometers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
