The Application of Titanium in Medicine

1,As an emerging material, titanium has been used in the pharmaceutical industry, surgical instruments, human implants and other fields for decades, and has achieved great success.

2, Bone and joint injury caused by trauma and tumor，using titanium and titanium alloy can make artificial joint,  plate and screw have been widely used in clinical. It is also used in the hip (including femoral head), knee joint, elbow joint, metacalangeal joint, interphalangeal joint, lower M-bone, artificial vertebral body (spinal orthosis), cardiac pacemaker shell, artificial heart (heart valve), artificial dental implant, and titanium mesh in cranium reconstruction and other aspects.  

3, The requirements for implant materials can be classified into three aspects: biocompatibility of materials with human body, corrosion resistance of materials in human environment and mechanical properties of materials. As long-term implant materials, there are seven specific requirements as follows:  

 (1) corrosion resistance;  

 (2) biocompatibility;  

 (3) Excellent mechanical and fatigue properties;  

 (4) toughness;  

 (5) Low elastic modulus;  

 (6) Good wear resistance in the combination;  

 (7) Satisfactory price;  

4, Surgical implant materials mainly include: metal, polymer, ceramic, etc., metal materials include stainless steel and titanium base alloy.  

Stainless steel is cheap and easy to process, but corrosion resistance and biocompatibility is not as good as titanium alloy;titanium and titanium alloys are attracting more and more attention due to their high specific strength, good biocompatibility and good resistance. The deficiencies of titanium alloy are poor wear resistance, difficult to cast, and poor processing performance.