Synthesis and fabrication of porous calcium phosphate ceramics for antibacterial bone substitutes

Abstract

Calcium phosphate ceramics like hydroxyapatite (HA) are widely used to repair and reconstruct damaged parts of the human skeleton. This material is currently available as injectable cements, granules or macroporous blocks. The most familiar materials are granule shaped ones because their conveniency to be implanted in human body. In this study, a new manufacturing procedure to fabricate dense, microporous and macroporous hydroxyapatite spherical granules based on a lost wax principle and allowing the fabrication of beads with a fully controlled porosity is presented. The HA granules porous structure is used to impregnation by gentamicine and other active substances. The drug and phage releasing kinetics are compared as a function of time and ceramic porosity.