Abstract
Metallic materials can find many kinds of applications in the human body: for example, in orthopaedics, for hip and knee prostheses, for osteosynthesis devices, in the cardiovascular sector, for endovascular prostheses, cardiac valves, pace-makers; in stomatological areas and for osteointegrated dental implants. Herein, some corrosion problems linked to the metallic materials used in the human body are examined, focusing in particular on orthopaedic materials. Failure mechanisms of these materials is briefly revised, dealing with fatigue, general and localised corrosion, fretting. Finally, a brief outline of the surface finishing treatments is presented.
Human blood seeks revenge upon iron, In fact once encountered it, it tends to get rusty, faster and faster.
Plinio, Nat., 34, 146
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Notes
- 1.
The term fatigue is commonly used even though, since the phenomenon occurs in an aggressive environment, it would be more appropriate to say corrosion-fatigue.
- 2.
The EU directive 94727, 1994 imposes that metal parts aimed to skin contact must not release more than 2 mg/cm2 week of nickel. The fulfillment of this directive has brought to a sensitive reduction of dermatitis due to nickel contact. Unfortunately, European Bank technicians did not take this into account if what Nature (2002) writes is true, namely, that 1 and 2 euro coins have a nickel release rate 230–320 times higher than the limit level, for this reason they induce allergic reactions in individuals sensitive to this metal.
Bibliography
Cigada A, Chiesa R, Pinasco RM, Hisatsune K (2002) Metallic materials. In: Barbucci R (ed) Integrated biomaterials science. Kluwer Academic Press, Plenum Publisher, New York, USA
Hansen DC (2008) Metal corrosion in the human body: the ultimate bio-corrosion scenario. The Electrochem Soc Interface 17(2):31–34
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Pedeferri (Deceased), P. (2018). Corrosion in the Human Body. In: Corrosion Science and Engineering. Engineering Materials. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97625-9_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97625-9_25
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