Bone-Healing Implants

illuminatus (65)in #steemstem • 7 years ago

Have you ever broken a bone? Well, I haven't. However, my grandmother has broken her arm and I remember what she went through during the period it took for the bone to regrow. She was unable to do anything with that hand and it was in a pop. From what I have heard, other than taking a long time to regrow, the process by which the bones regrow is a very painful one.

I have always told people around me that the future will be a very beautiful place.A world where the line between science and magic becomes blurred, a place where we humans become gods (we are closer to that than we were some centuries back) a place where the word "impossible" is not commonplace. That future is almost here.

If you are one of those people who don't want other people to experience any hardship you have experienced and you have had a broken bone, your prayers are in the process of being answered. Science is already answering another prayer of yours, the technology to help bones heal within a shorter period of time.

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Forget about the screws or metal plates. The new sheriff in town, 3D-printing is the one taking us a step further into the future. An implant with about the same chemical composition as the bones is used to hold the bones together during repair and eventually become actual bones.

At the University Of Sydney, Australia, a group of scientists, led by Hala Zreiqat employed this implant in the repair of broken bones in a group of rabbits. Eight sheep with broken bones were used in the study. Immediately the implants were made, the sheep were able to work with the aid of plaster casts which helped stabilize their legs for the first four weeks.

One beautiful thing about this implant is the fact that the implant's initial scaffolds gradually dissolves as the bone heals. As a result of the fact that the implant is made up of elements found in the bones, such as zinc, calcium silicate, strontium, etc the implant contains no toxic residue which might result in poisoning.

If further testing works out well, this could be a game changer in the treatment of broken bones. Although rigid, this could aid in the reduction of the pain associated with growing bones and help the broken bones heal much faster than currently available methods.