Bone Adhesives in Trauma and Orthopedic Surgery

Abstract

Adhesives, especially bone adhesives, are resorbed and degraded to non-toxic products after fulfilling their function in contact with the living organism. The use of such bone adhesives has found growing interest in all fields of medicine in the last 50 years. The dream of trauma and orthopedic surgeons for alternatives to osteosynthesis and pins is reflected in the development of a variety of surrogates of biological or synthetic origin. Despite a longstanding history of research in this field up to now a clinically applicable alternative could not have been found on the field of bone gluing. The application consistently collapsed, because these adhesives were not tailored to the conditions met within the living organism. The following article is meant to provide an overview of the development, the state of the art and today’s knowledge of bone adhesives. In addition, the article wants to pinpoint the tremendous progress made on this subject, made possible by the joint effort of basic researchers and surgeons. The results show that in the future a successful reconstructive surgery will emerge from the application of synthetic biomaterials.