Date of Award
Spring 1992
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Biomedical Engineering
First Advisor
Blumenthal, Robert
Second Advisor
Lynch, Kenneth
Third Advisor
Hubbard, William
Abstract
The problems with currently available bone grafts have been well documented in the literature. The incidence of complications with allografts and autografts is high due to a variety of reasons. Thus, the search for suitable synthetic bone graft substitutes has been undertaken by many investigators over the past 25 years. The calcium phosphate ceramics have shown superiority over other synthetic graft materials. One of the calcium phosphate ceramics, calcium pyrophosphate (Ca2P20 7), has been the subject of discrepancy in the literature. Some have claimed it to be a calcification inhibitor due to the presence of the pyrophosphate ion. Others have claimed it to be an osteoconductive ceramic. To resolve this discrepancy, research was undertaken to prepare calcium pyrophosphate ceramics which could be implanted in order to determine the biological response in vivo. Material characterization and biological evaluation of the calcium pyrophosphates were undertaken to determine if the calcium pyrophosphate phases were safe and efficacious for use as bone graft substitutes.