Magnesium Bone Implants Show Promise But Face Hydrogen Gas Challenges
- Authors
- Meysam Nasr Azadani, Abolfazl Zahedi, Oluwole Kingsley Bowoto, Bankole Ibrahim Oladapo
- Journal
- Progress in Biomaterials
- Year
- 2022
- DOI
- 10.1007/s40204-022-00182-x
- Study Type
- clinical
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Health Condition
- Bone Fractures
- Body System
- Musculoskeletal
TL;DR
Scientists think magnesium could be a game-changer for bone implants because it naturally breaks down in your body and works well with bones, but the problem is it breaks down too fast and can cause issues—so researchers are working on ways to slow it down and make it stronger using special coatings and new manufacturing techniques.
Key Finding
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Summary
Scientists conducted a comprehensive review of magnesium-based bone implants, examining their potential as biodegradable alternatives to traditional metal implants. While magnesium alloys offer excellent biocompatibility and naturally dissolve in the body, promoting bone growth, they face significant challenges. Rapid corrosion leads to premature weakening and problematic hydrogen gas accumulation at the implant site. The review explored solutions including surface coatings, alloying treatments, and advanced laser-based manufacturing techniques. These approaches show promise for controlling corrosion rates and improving mechanical properties, potentially making magnesium implants viable for widespread orthopedic applications in the future.
Abstract
Medical application materials must meet multiple requirements, and the designed implant must mimic the bone structure in shape and support the formation of bone tissue (osteogenesis). Magnesium (Mg) alloys, as a 'smart' biodegradable material and as 'the green engineering material in the twenty-first century', have become an outstanding bone implant material due to their natural degradability, smart biocompatibility, and desirable mechanical properties. Magnesium is recognised as the next generation of orthopaedic appliances and bioresorbable scaffolds. At the same time, improving the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys is an urgent challenge to promote the application of magnesium alloys. Nevertheless, the excessively quick deterioration rate generally results in premature mechanical integrity disintegration and local hydrogen build-up, resulting in restricted clinical bone restoration applicability. The condition of Mg bone implants is thoroughly examined in this study. The relevant approaches to boost the corrosion resistance, including purification, alloying treatment, surface coating, and Mg-based metal matrix composite, are comprehensively revealed. These characteristics are reviewed to assess the progress of contemporary Mg-based biocomposites and alloys for biomedical applications. The fabricating techniques for Mg bone implants also are thoroughly investigated. Notably, laser-based additive manufacturing fabricates customised forms and complicated porous structures based on its distinctive additive manufacturing conception. Because of its high laser energy density and strong controllability, it is capable of fast heating and cooling, allowing it to modify the microstructure and performance. This review paper aims to provide more insight on the present challenges and continued research on Mg bone implants, highlighting some of the most important characteristics, challenges, and strategies for improving Mg bone implants.