COMPOSITE TECHNOLOGY IN LOAD-BEARING ORTHOPEDIC IMPLANTS

Composite materials have been widely promoted as possible orthopaedic biomaterials but to date have found few successful commercial applicat ions, due to the many challenging problems presented by their design, fabrication and testing. The range of possible composite biomaterials is reviewed, together with the possible methods of fabrication and the limitations that these place on the design of composite components. T he use of composite materials allows many new design possibilities, bu t this freedom of design requires a clearer understanding of the objec tives and constraints on the design process. The testing of composite components also presents many challenging problems, which are not adeq uately addressed by existing standards developed for testing conventio nal monolithic materials. The interaction of composite materials with the body is more complex than that of the component materials, and the prediction of their long-term mechanical performance also presents ma ny intractable difficulties. However, despite these challenges composi te materials are likely to prove invaluable in the future development of orthopaedics. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved