Clinical application of bioabsorbable polymer interbody fusion cage / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Bioabsorbable polymer materials used in interbody fusion are currently a hot research, and there is stil no consensus. OBJECTIVE:To summarize the basic research and clinical application of bioabsorbable polymer interbody fusion cages. METHODS:A search of literatures in the database of Wanfang, VIP and PubMed databases from January 1989 to June 2012 was performed with the key words of“intervertebral fusion;bioabsorbable;spine;animal experiment;clinical research”in Chinese and English, respectively. Al the literatures concerning bioabsorbable polymer interbody fusion cage were extensively reviewed, and current developments in the basic research and the clinical application of bioabsorbable polymer interbody fusion cage were investigated. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Basic researches show that bioabsorbable polymer cage can effectively promote interbody fusion, the main defect is the delayed inflammatory response and bulk erosion, and the degradation and fusion speed, mechanical strength and porosity need further studies. At present, the hybrid copolymer of polylactic acid and its derivatives is used in clinic and relevant research is being carried out. The main advantage of the material is that it is of flexibility to change parameters when used in fusion for different needs, but a good blood supply to tissues around the fusion cage and the osteogenesis effect are very important. Scaffold porosity and other key parameters can affect the mechanical properties of fusion cage to provide sufficient space to meet the requirement of cellmigration, angiogenesis, thereby promoting bone fusion, under the necessary pressure load. So, to find the optimal combination of parameters in the field of bone tissue engineering is stil a chal enge.