April 26, 2013
May 1, 2013 – Isoflux Incorporated Chief Technology Officer Dr. David Glocker gave a presentation on orthopedic applications of Isoflux’s proprietary VisTa coating at the Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC) in Providence, RI last week. The paper was entitled Antimicrobial and Bone Growth Responses to Porous Tantalum Coatings, and was co-authored by Dr. Thomas Webster, chairman and professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University.
The presentation, available in its entirety here [INSERT LINK], described results of VisTa coating on both titanium and PEEK substrates, both very common materials used in orthopedic devices. VisTa is a nano-structured tantalum coating that provides a strongly bonded surface to help promote attachment and growth of new bone cells.
The samples coated with VisTa provided a significant enhancement as compared with uncoated samples. In addition, on the PEEK substrate VisTa also showed a significant improvement over hydroxyapatite coating, a coating material commonly used in orthopedic implants.
“The results presented at SVC demonstrate that VisTa can improve the attachment of bone to orthopedic implants,” Dr. Glocker said. “Although VisTa was originally developed to provide a highly flexible coating with improved visibility under fluoroscopy, the unique structure of our coating provides a host of other advantages.”
The graph below, taken from Dr. Glocker’s presentation, shows the comparison of an uncoated PEEK implant with PEEK implants coated with hydroxyapatite and Isoflux’s proprietary VisTa coating. The bars are proportional to the push out strength, the strength required to push the implant out of bone following a four week implantation in rats. The higher the push out strength, the greater the attachment to the surrounding bone.
“VisTa showed approximately a 3x improvement over hydroxyapatite in this study,” Isoflux CEO John Lanzafame stated.
“This shows the tremendous potential value of VisTa to the orthopedic market.”
CLICK HERE to view the full presentation given by Dr. Glocker at the Society of Vacuum Coaters.
