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Dissolvable Glass For Bone Repair

Posted by kdawson on from the heart-of-glass dept.

gpronger writes "Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, but Glass Will Certainly Mend Them! The old schoolyard ditty may be changed to reflect developments using metallic glass that will dissolve in situ instead of the traditional stainless steel or titanium hardware, which require removal by surgery once the bone has healed. Physics World reports that researcher Jörg Löffler at ETH Zurich has created an alloy of 60% magnesium, 35% zinc, and 5% calcium, molded in the form of metallic glass. Through rapid cooling, the alloy forms a molecularly amorphous glass that slowly dissolves over time, supporting the injury long enough for healing, then slowly dissolving away."

5 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Somehow... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I doubt the little schoolyard ditty will be changed.

  2. He had a glass jaw! by BigSes · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, really.

  3. Re:end to casts? by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Informative

    excessive soluble Magnesium in the body depletes calcium.
    I'm sure they probably have thought about this. One could see this working both ways. Perhaps having magnesium in the replacment helps precipitate calcium in a useful place near the bone replacment. On the other hand soluble magnesium is know to rob bones of calcium, so a large source of soluble calcium especially concntrated near a weak bone might undermine it.

    I have no idea what the right answer is here, but it does seem like something that need to be considered strongly.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  4. Re:end to casts? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd be extremely surprised if it did.

    Casts are annoying; but they are dirt cheap, can be performed with comparatively minimal training, and are pretty low risk. For bone breaks that are easily accessible and not too complicated, they are going to be hard to dislodge.

    This stuff would, if it works, turn a two surgery process(one to implant, one to explant) for dealing with nastier sorts of bone breaks into a one surgery process. That would be a win. Turning a zero surgery process into a one surgery process would be a major loss.

  5. Re:end to casts? by HaZardman27 · · Score: 5, Funny

    This sounds like a solid business plan: repair broken bones and weaken others so that they will break soon too, thus ensuring a returning customer!

    --
    Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.