Biomedical Surfaces

Coating applications

Bone tumours are all too frequently some of the most difficult conditions faced by orthopaedic surgeons.  Though relatively uncommon in the whole population, these tumours tend to strike young children and adults.  Without radical surgery these conditions can progress very rapidly, usually with fatal consequences.

 

Custom made implants

  Implant pioneers Stanmore Implants Worldwide Ltd, (SIW); based on the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital campus in Stanmore, Middlesex, has become a world leader in supplying the custom-made implants to replace bone removed in bone tumour surgery. 

 

Fast design process

  Stanmore Implants has developed very fast methods of creating designs for implants directly from X-rays and CT scans, manufacturing implants and delivering them for surgeons to replace bone sections. SIW can achieve very rapid turnaround, often within four days, and sometimes overnight for urgent critical cases.

 

Biomedical  integrity

  While a variety of materials are used for implants, the most common material to replace bone structures is a titanium aluminium vanadium alloy.  Cambridge hard coating specialist Tecvac Ltd, a member of the Wallwork Group, provides some of SIW's titanium alloy implants with a titanium nitride coating to help ensure the mechanical, biocompatible and cosmetic integrity of the implants.  While SIW provides around 900 custom-made devices every year, titanium nitride is normally only applied to the proximal tibial replacements, where it is particularly important to avoid tissue staining and have smooth interaction with surrounding tissue, due to the close proximity of the tibia to the skin surface.

Medical applications of Titanium nitride

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