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FRACTURE REPAIR WITH PASTE, NOT METAL.

The repair of many fractures requires not only metal plates and screws but also pieces of bone from other sites to fill holes in the fractured bone. The process involves considerable pain and expense. In 1985, a graduate student noted that coral has a structure similar to that of bone, but forms through completely inorganic physiochemical reactions that can be modeled in the laboratory, whereas bone formation requires proteins (and is much more difficult to simulate). He and a team of materials scientists and orthopedic surgeons spent several years experimenting with some 1200 formulations of a bone-like substance comprised of calcium, phosphoric acid, and a sodium-phosphate solution. They now report finding a mixture with ideal properties: it can be injected percutaneously into fracture sites and sculpted to the shape of the missing bone, hardens within 10 minutes, achieves a strength equivalent to that of bone, and is subsequently remodeled by surrounding bone cells and replaced with living bone. Early clinical trials, particularly with Colles' wrist fractures, have had excellent results. Comment: Clinical trials using this artificial paste in a variety of fractures have been underway in Europe and are starting in the U.S. This revolutionary technique may make metal hardware and bone chips unnecessary in the treatment of fractures.

— AL Komaroff

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine April 14, 1995

Citation(s):

Pool R. Coral chemistry leads to human bone repair. Science 1995 Mar 24 267 1772-1772.

• Medline abstract (Free)

Constantz BR, et al. Skeletal repair by in situ formation of the mineral phase of bone. Science 1995 Mar 24 267 1796-1799.

• Medline abstract (Free)