Current and future biocompatibility aspects of biomaterials for hip prosthesis

Abstract

The field of biomaterials has turn into an electrifying area because these materials improve the quality and longevity of human life. The first and foremost necessity for the selection of the biomaterial is the acceptability by human body. However, the materials used in hip implants are designed to sustain the load bearing function of human bones for the start of the patient’s life. The most common classes of biomaterials used are metals, polymers, ceramics, composites and apatite. These five classes are used individually or in combination with other materials to form most of the implantation devices in recent years. Numerous current and promising new biomaterials i.e. metallic, ceramic, polymeric and composite are discussed to highlight their merits and their frailties in terms of mechanical and metallurgical properties in this review. It is concluded that current materials have their confines and there is a need for more refined multi-functional materials to be developed in order to match the biocompatibility, metallurgical and mechanical complexity of the hip prosthesis.

Keywords

• biocompatibility; biomaterials; hip prosthesis; mechanical properties; metallurgical properties