Accelerating Biodegradation of Calcium Phosphate Cement

Abstract

Calcium phosphate cements (CPCs) are extensively used for bone replacement and regeneration in orthopedic, dental, and maxillofacial surgical applications. Despite their natural bone-like compositions, excellent biocompatibility and osteoconductivity, and superior clinical handling, they exhibit brittle nature, low bending/tensile strength, and poor degradability, prohibiting their use in load-bearing sites and limiting bone ingrowth into the implant. In order to accelerate the degradation of these biomaterials effectively, the major factors including cement composition and porosity are first discussed in this chapter. Small alterations to these factors substantially affect the degradation rate of the cement and thus the formation of new bone. To face the challenge in the biodegradation investigation on CPC without reducing the mechanical strength and losing the self-setting ability, several strategies are then proposed to speed up the biodegradation of calcium phosphate cements. Especially, the proposed combination strategies allow the CPC replacement to achieve the multifunctions.