Bone grafts’ usage areas and β-TCP (tricalcium phosphate) mechanical strength properties

Abstract

The process of completing the exposed areas with surgical procedures due to the deformation in the damaged bone for the purpose of repairing bone fractures is called bone grafting. With this invasive procedure, the grafts placed in the damaged bone area are absorbed by the living structure with the repair process in the bone. The healing process takes a few months, depending on the type of the graft used. With the precondition that the patients are not too old, the bone structure usually has the ability to completely regenerate. In order to activate the regeneration ability, the fracture area in the bone must either be very small or have a support structure that will act as a scaffold. Bone grafts can be evaluated in four basic groups; Autograft (contains structures taken from the patient's own body), Allograft (structures taken from another patient of the same type), Zenograft (taken from another living thing), Synthetic (Ceramic materials, materials in block, granule, injectable form produced from polymer materials). Bone grafts serve as scaffolding to regenerate the losses in the bone with their osteoconduction feature. Supporting the osteoconductivity in the area where the deformation occurs in the bone depends on the bioactive chemicals (Beta-Tricalcium Phosphate) of the implant used during the surgical procedure to support the regeneration. The graft used to repair (regenerate) the damaged bone should have osteoinduction, osteoconduction, and osteointegration properties. Although the allograft structure is observed to be more successful when evaluated in terms of these three features, it is observed that synthetic grafts are used at very high rates in surgical operations when the accessibility, cost, and applicability are evaluated. In this study we will review and evaluate synthetic bone grafts.