Performance of hydroxyapatite bone repair scaffolds created via three-dimensional fabrication techniques (original) (raw)

The current study analyzes the in vivo performance of porous sintered hydroxyapatite (HA) bone repair scaffolds fabricated using the TheriForm™ solid freeform fabrication process. Porous HA scaffolds with engineered macroscopic channels had a significantly higher percentage of new bone area compared with porous HA scaffolds without channels in a rabbit calvarial defect model at an 8-week time point. An unexpected finding was the unusually large amount of new bone within the base material structure, which contained pores less than 20 m in size. Compared with composite scaffolds of 80% polylactic-co-glycolic acid and 20% ␤-tricalcium phosphate with the same macroscopic architecture as evaluated in a previous study, the porous HA scaffolds with channels had a significantly higher percentage of new bone area. Therefore, the current study indicates that scaffold geometry, as determined by the fabrication process, can enhance the ability of a ceramic material to accelerate healing of calvarial defects.