Antimicrobial and Bone Growth Responses to Nanostructured Porous Tantalum Coatings on Ti and PEEK: An in vivo Study
October 7, 2013 12:00 am
The effects of nanostructured tantalum (Ta) coatings on antimicrobial responses and bone attachment were studied. Small Ta coated discs of titanium and PEEK were inoculated with Staph. epidermis both with and without presoaking in the antibiotic gentamycin. The discs were then implanted in rat calvial defects and the push out forces after 1 week and 4 weeks were used as measures of bone growth. Uncoated discs and discs coated with hydroxyapatite were used as controls. In all cases the coated discs had greater push out forces than uncoated discs and the antibiotic soaked samples had greater push out forces than the samples without antibiotics. In the case of titanium substrates, the Ta and hydroxyapatite coatings had comparable push out forces and both were measurably better than uncoated titanium. In the case of PEEK substrates, the push out forces of the Ta coated samples were two to three times greater than the push out forces of the hydroxyapatite coated samples and both coated samples had significantly higher push out forces than bare PEEK.