New Biodegradable implant to help heal broken bones

Harvesting a patient's bone can result in complications at the harvest site, researchers said.

Some surgeons also use bone donated from cadavers. However, there is a limited supply of donor bones available.

Using a synthetic material will likely lead to a reduction in the surgery complication rate. The patient will only need to heal from one surgery because harvesting bone would not be necessary.

The goal is to use the material without any additional permanent hardware placed in a patient's body. Current procedures often require a metal or non-resorbable plastic implant because traditional bone grafts are not strong enough without the added support.

"This improves outcomes for the patient because internal hardware can pose a challenge with respect to being a potential site for infection, and can complicate MRI and CT imaging tests," said Kevin Baker, director, Beaumont Orthopaedic Research Laboratories.

"In addition, from the surgeon's perspective, not having to worry about a large piece of metal or hard plastic in the area may make future procedures easier," said Baker, who worked on the study with Rangaramanujam Kannan, of Johns Hopkins, formerly with Wayne State University.

The finding was published in the journal Nanomedicine.