Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Magnesium alloy vs PLLA screws for healing dog tibia fractures
By Marukawa, Eriko et al.·Published in Journal of biomedical materials research. Part B, Applied biomaterials·2016·Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Japan·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Comparison of magnesium alloys and poly-l-lactide screws as degradable implants in a canine fracture model.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of beagle dogs with tibia fractures had different types of biodegradable implants placed to see which worked best for healing. The study compared magnesium alloy screws and poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) screws. While the PLLA screws broke after four weeks, the magnesium alloy screws remained intact and effectively supported the bone during healing. This suggests that magnesium alloy implants could be a better option for fixing fractures in dogs compared to the commonly used PLLA screws.
People also search for: dog fracture treatment · biodegradable implants for dogs · beagle tibia fracture recovery
Abstract
The aims of this study were to evaluate in vivo the biological responses to implants composed of biodegradable anodized WE43 (containing magnesium yttrium, rare earth elements and zirconium; Elektron SynerMag®) magnesium alloy, monolithic WE43 magnesium alloy and poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA), which are commonly used materials in clinic settings, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the materials as bone screws. The effectiveness of the magnesium alloy implants in osteosynthesis was evaluated using a bone fracture model involving the tibia of beagle dogs. For the monolithic WE43 implants, radiological, and histological evaluation revealed that bone trabeculae around the implanted monolithic WE43 decreased because of an inflammatory response. However, there was no damage due to hydrogen gas or inflammatory response in the bone tissue around the anodized WE43 implants. After 4 weeks, all the PLLA implants (n = 3) had broken but the WE43 implants had not (n = 6). These results suggest that the WE43 implants had sufficient strength to fix bone fractures at load-bearing sites in orthopedic and oral maxillofacial surgery. Therefore, these biodegradable magnesium alloys are good candidates for replacing biodegradable polymers. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 104B: 1282-1289, 2016.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26100641/