Titanium: The "Potential Star" In The Field Of Orthopedics

In the field of orthopedic medicine, the choice of materials is essential, which is directly related to the success rate of surgery and the rehabilitation effect of patients. With its unique properties, titanium has gradually emerged in orthopedic applications and has become one of the materials that have attracted much attention.

1) The Unique Advantages Of Titanium In Orthopedic Applications

The elastic modulus of pure titanium is only 53% that of stainless steel. This characteristic makes it closer to the natural bone of the human body when implanted in the human body.In orthopedic surgery, this similarity is extremely critical. It is conducive to the smooth progress of the bone grafting process and can significantly reduce the stress shielding effect of the bone on the implant. The stress shielding effect refers to the fact that the implant bears too much stress that should have been borne by the bone due to excessive stiffness. In the long run, it will lead to osteoporosis and other problems due to the lack of sufficient stress stimulation of the bone. This advantage of titanium has made titanium alloy elbow joints, ankle joints, etc. widely used in human orthopedic surgery.

Titanium has a wide range of applications. Titanium can be seen in spine orthopedic rods, intramedullary needles, intramedullary nails, pressurized bone plates, artificial joints, etc. Taking the treatment of common orthopedic diseases as an example, patella fractures are more common intraarticular fractures, and patella aggregators are used in treatment. The patella concentrator takes a titanium-nickel alloy sheet with a thickness of 1.5-2mm to make a functional claw branch with a patella tip and a patella bottom. The clinical results show that the use of the concentrator is simple to operate, saves time and effort, and in some cases, the operation can even be completed under local anesthesia, which is convenient for popularization and application. Waveform curved foot riding nail is developed using the memory characteristics of titanium-nickel alloy; a pressurized plate made of nickel-titanium alloy can be used to pressurize and fix the fracture site, which is used to cure dry femoral fractures. The operation is simple and the treatment effect is good.

Our country started early in the application of titanium orthopedics. Since 1972, our country has begun to use domestic titanium and titanium alloy artificial bones and joints for clinical treatment. Beijing General Research Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals is one of the earliest units in China to study titanium artificial joints. In 1973, it produced 300 industrial pure titanium artificial femurs and hip joints for clinical use.As of 2023, although the amount of titanium used in China's pharmaceutical industry is relatively low, the growth rate is more than 30%, which shows great development potential and is a truly blue ocean market.

2) Current Application Of Titanium Alloy Grades And Development

At present, the more mature titanium alloy grades are Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-6Al-4V TITANIUM alloys, which are widely used in implant materials. However, these two alloys contain the toxic element vanadium, which may be potentially harmful for long-term use in the human body. Although the International Organization for Standardization and the International Medical Materials Safety Commission have not yet ordered a ban on the use of this alloy, the application of Ti-6Al-4V in the human body has gradually declined.

In order to solve this problem, several vanadium-free medical titanium alloys have been developed internationally. Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy was developed by Switzerland and put into clinical application. My country is not far behind. Beijing Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals developed vanadium-free medical titanium alloy and passed medical clinical application experiments. The project won the First Prize of Science and Technology of China's Non-Ferrous Metal Industry in 2001. In addition, there are Germany's Ti-5Al-2.5 Fe alloy, India's Ti-5Al-1.5B alloy, Ti-15Mo-5Zr-3Al alloy, etc. These new alloys provide more options for the application of titanium in orthopedics.

3) The Fusion And Innovation Of 3D Printing And Titanium

On the basis of biosafety, medical additive manufacturing of pure titanium is used to treat skull defects, dentition defects and hip replacements. The study found that the stiffness of 3D-printed pure titanium mesh can better maintain space than other diaphragms, which is conducive to the molding of bone grafting materials. Moreover, customized titanium mesh has greater advantages than commercial titanium mesh by shortening the surgical time and eliminating the risk of postoperative infection. The current rapid development of 3D printing technology has brought new opportunities for the application of titanium in orthopedics, which is expected to trigger an industrial innovation in the titanium industry.

4) Future Outlook

Perhaps the application of a single titanium metal or titanium alloy as a bone replacement material in clinical practice still has certain mechanical and biological properties limitations, but with the continuous development of science and technology, these problems are gradually being solved.For example, its insufficient performance can be improved by coating nanomaterials.

The application of titanium metal in orthopedics is the current trend of medical development. The titanium industry should seize this opportunity, increase investment in research and development, and continuously improve product quality and performance. While benefiting society and alleviating pain for patients, it can also promote their own development and achieve a win-win situation of social and economic benefits. We believe that in the future, titanium will play a more important role in the field of orthopedics and make greater contributions to the cause of human health.