Regeneration of trabecular bone using porous ceramics

As health care is improving, our life expectancy is increasing but as we get older we lose bone density due to osteoporosis. At present the treatment for severe cases of osteoporosis is the total hip replacement. This has been one of the most successful surgical procedures in the history of medicine, but it uses bio-inert materials to replace damaged bone. These materials cause further loss in bone density and eventually the replacement needs to be replaced. A patient that has a hip replacement at the age of 60 may need several revision operations by the time they reach ninety. For large done defects an alternative is transplantation, but there are limitations of a lack of donors and morbidity of the donor site. Both of these techniques are tissue replacement techniques. A shift in thinking is required from tissue replacement to the regeneration of tissues to their original state and function. One path to follow is the regeneration of bone using ceramic and glass scaffolds that mimic the structure of bone mineral, bond to bone and in some cases activate the genes within bone cells to stimulate new bone growth. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.