bioactive foam to replace skull bone tagged posts

A bioactive foam could be used to replace skull bone lost to injury, surgery, or birth defect. Credit: Texas A&M University

A Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute team is developing a new material that can be used to replace skull bone lost to injury, surgery, or defect. The bioactive foam is malleable when exposed to warm saline (similar to a sponge), allowing surgeons to easily shape it to fit irregular defects in the skull, where it hardens in place. Once implanted in the skull, specially coated pores within the foam attract bone cells, naturally regenerating bone to replace the foam, which dissolves over time.

The foam – a shape memory polymer coated in a bioactive polydopamine – is intended as an alternative to materials currently used to treat cranio-maxillofacial gaps...