A NOVEL METHOD FOR FABRICATION OF BIODEGRADABLE SCAFFOLDS WITH HIGH COMPRESSION MODULI

It has been previously shown that, when used for meniscal reconstructi on, porous copoly(L-lactide/epsilon-caprolactone) implants enhanced he aling of meniscal lesions owing to their excellent adhesive properties . However, it appeared that the materials had an insufficient compress ion modulus to accomplish 100% fibrocartilage formation. In addition, to be used for meniscal prosthesis, the compression modulus of the por ous materials should be larger than 150 kPa in order to protect the ar ticular cartilage. A technique was developed to prepare stiff porous m aterials of a high molecular weight 50/50 copoly(L-lactide/epsilon-cap rolactone) suitable for fibrocartilage regeneration in meniscal implan ts and meniscal prosthesis. Porous microspheres (50-250 mu m) were agg lutinated in the presence of NaCl crystals (250-300 mu m) The microsph eres were mixed with solid solvent in order to obtain a homogeneous di stribution of solvent over the spheres. By changing the amount of solv ent and crystals, the density and the compression modulus could be var ied over a range of 0.07 g ml(-1) to 0.5 g dl(-1) and 40-1100 kPa, res pectively.