Titanium for Medical Applications
In a review of the biocompatibility of clinical implant materials some twenty years ago [1 ] I referred to a statement given in the preface of the Proceedings of an International Conference on the Science, Technology and Applications of Titanium in 1968 w
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David F. Williams
University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Introduction ......•......................................•...... The Role of Titanium in Current Medical Devices. . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . • • . .. The Validity of the Concept of Biostability and Biological Safety ........ Titanium and Tissue Engineering .................................. Bioactivity and Titanium .....•................................... Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . • • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • • . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
D. M. Brunette et al., Titanium in Medicine © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2001
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2 Titanium for Medical Applications
2.1 Introduction In a review of the biocompatibility of clinical implant materials some twenty years ago [1] I referred to a statement given in the preface of the Proceedings of an International Conference on the Science, Technology and Applications of Titanium in 1968 which stated that: Never has there been, as in the case of titanium, the concentration of scientific and technical devotion to a single metal, with so much money, over such diversified areas, both technical and geographical. Never has a metal invited and received such attention, not only from the technical viewpoint, but also from the political arena and the world offinance. Never has metal, normally considered so mundane, been so extravagantly described as the wonder metal, the glamour metal and the metal of promise.
After considering the properties and characteristics of titanium and its alloys with respect to biocompatibility and applications in implanted devices, I then concluded that this excitement about this metal in general engineering was reflected in the specific situation in the medical field, with the following comment: The extensive list of clinical uses of titanium and the titanium-aluminium-vanadium alloy is a clear indication of the suitability of these materials for implant applications. There is no doubt, of course, that both stainless steel and cobaltchromium alloys are widely used and generally accepted as good biomaterials. However, the fact that titanium is being used preferentially in many of the more recent applications in maxillofacial and oral surgery, neurosurgery and cardiovascular surgery, indicates a slight superiority. There is a clear advantage in corrosion resistance, and probably the titanium-aluminium-vanadium alloy has the best combination of mechanical and physical properties, corrosion resistance and general biocompatibility of all metallic biomaterials.
Twenty years is a long time in the history of biomaterials and medical devices and it is appropriate and opportune to consider whether this superiority exists today and whether titanium and its alloys can still be regarded as exceptionally good biomaterials. This chapter represents an attempt to update this analysis of titanium in the context of medical devices. It d
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