A Comparative Study of Densitometric Parameters of the Bone Tissue Under Transosseous Osteosynthesis by Using Experimental Implants Coated with Superhard Compounds

Abstract

By X-ray computed tomography (CT), density characteristics of the tibiae bones in 25 experimental adult male rats were studied after their tibiae bones have experimentally fractured and then repaired by osteosynthesis using different implants. According to the data that was obtained by computed tomography, it has been defined that bone densities depend on the type of the implant and the chemical composition of the coating which is applied on the surface of the implant. Thus, average values of the density of the tibiae bones in the experimental rats with implants coated with a combination of titanium and hafnium nitrides were not different from the density values of the intact bones. At the same time, the densities of the tibiae in rats with implants made of copper and implants coated with a combination of titanium and zirconium nitrides were 1.5-2 times lower than those of the intact bones. This leads us to conclude that implants coated with titanium and hafnium nitrides are biologically and chemically inert because less pathologic changes in the bone tissue were observed, in contrast to the copper-based implants and those where the coating contains zirconium.

Keywords

• Rat
• implants
• titanium
• hafnium
• zirconium