Metallic implant anchorable to bone tissue for replacing a broken or diseased bone
AssigneeInstitut Straumann AG
InventorsSamuel G. Steinemann, Lutz Claes
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Abstract
The prevailing opinion, supported by observations, has been in the art, that any implant of titanium or of another similar material is to have a contact surface roughness of more than 20 .mu.m to yield a good bond between bone and implant. The present invention is based upon the recognition, that the bond between bone and implant may be substantially improved by providing the contact surface of the implant with a micro-roughness of 2 .mu.m or less. According to the method of the invention such micro-roughness can be readily produced by subjecting the contact surface to pickling in a reducing acid.
Claims7
A metallic implant to be applied to a human or animal bone, comprising a porous metallic biocompatible surface, treated with a reducing acid to be provided with micro-roughness having a maximum peak-to-valley height R.sub.t greater than 10 .mu.m and roughness spacing RS less than 10 .mu.m, to come into contact with the bone and to intergrow therewith.
A metallic implant to be applied to a human or animal bone comprising a porous metallic biocompatible surface to come into contact with the bone and to intergrow therewith, wherein the contact surface is provided with micro-roughness and a fine pitting is superimposed on the micro-roughness so as to have a maximum peak-to-valley height R.sub.t greater than 10 .mu.m and roughness spacing RS less than 10 .mu.m.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.