A critical investigation of some of the procedures employed in the surgical use of titanium

✍ Scribed by A. P. Ameen; R. D. Short; C. W. I. Douglas; R. Johns; B. Ballet

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 494 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0957-4530
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00119730

✦ Synopsis

Rigorous and exhaustive procedures are employed when titanium (Ti) is surgically implanted, whether for orthopaedic or dental applications. Many of these are adopted because it is thought that surface cleanliness is paramount for clinical success. This paper critically examines the necessity for some of these procedures, concentrating on the surface chemistry of Ti plates. Radio frequency plasma treatments are used to remove contamination from "as received" Ti plates; XPS and ToF-SIMS were used to monitor the effects of surface chemistry. Ti plates are contaminated by immersing them in BSA or by deliberate contamination with the endospores of Bacillus stearothermophilus ATCC 7953. The effectiveness of simple cleaning procedures to remove BSA/Bacillus stearothermophilus are investigated. Attention is given to both the surface cleanliness and sterility after cleaning.