Review on materials and rapid prototyping techniques for cartilage implants

Abstract

The human tissue is a regular interconnected pore structure. Mechanical material properties and hydro gel lubrication characteristic can bring implant structures closer to the form that we can find in natural cartilage. Laser is used in a wide variety of materials to fabricate complicate 3D structures and that is way they have chosen it for closer analysis. In our days there are more and more biomaterials discovered and in use for the long term implant to substitute damaged tissues. In this paper some of the widely used synthetic implant materials and laser based fabrication methods are featured; why they would be ideal for this cartilage implant and for this laser based manufacturing method.