I-Corps: Injectable Bone Graft Substitute Materials

University Of Toledo Health Science Campus, Toledo OH

Investigators

Abstract

The proposed project will use bone-specific design criteria to synthesize bone substitute materials using benign materials and mild processing conditions. The project team has developed a bone substitute material for use in orthopedic and craniomaxillofacial bone defects. This bone substitute product is designed to possess injectability, biocompatibility, biodegradability, osteoconductivity, and osteoinductivity properties as well as structural and mechanical integrity. This bone substitute product is sufficiently flexible to fill cavities with different geometries with closer packing compared to fixed-shape substitutes. This bone substitute product can be injected to the bone defects using minimally invasive procedures. Minimally invasive surgery tremendously reduces healthcare costs. Bone substitute products with all the above properties do not currently exist in the market. The proposed bone substitute product has the potential to reduce the need to harvest healthy bone (autografts) from the patient to use for bone repairs. If successful, this project could have significant scientific impact on craniomaxillofacial, orthopaedic, and regenerative medicine. The bone-specific design criteria and mild processing techniques for bone substitute materials increase scientific knowledge for the bone regeneration field. The global bone graft substitute market was valued at $1.9 billion in 2010 and is forecast to reach $3.3 billion in 2017. The increasing population of elderly people is a major driving force for the market. Recent data indicate that a fracture requiring hospitalization costs an average of $27,000 and results in an average of 27 days of missed work. These costs can reduce drastically using minimal invasive procedures with innovative bone substitute materials instead of using traditional bone grafts which need longer hospitalization and rehabilitation times.