Microstructure analysis of medical synthetic foams using high resolution micro-computed tomography

N. Ivanovic, V. Kuhn, S. Neururer, W. Freysinger, W. Recheis

Abstract: Synthetic bone models were first introduced in the late 1980's as a bone substitute for biomechanical investigations. Even though a variety of synthetic bone models is offered by the manufactures, detailed histomorphometry information is still lacking. The purpose of this study is to perform a microstructural analysis of commercial synthetic open cell foams and find the correlation to human trabecular bone. We used bone histomorphometry software to perform the microstructural analysis of 8 different samples, and the suitable statistical tool to analyze the data. Statistical analysis showed that the Sawbones models exhibit similar properties to human trabecular bone in overall porosity - bone volume fraction ranging from 6.5% to 15.7%. Synbone models showed more similarity to human bone in the cell spacing and connectivity domains. Rod thickness (168 and 171 µm) and trabeculae spacing (0.74 and 0.96 mm) found in two Synbone foams could be directly related to the one in trabecular bone (168 and 232 µm; 0.69 and 1.14 mm). Compared to the literature, our extended investigation encompassed more artificial samples and revealed new aspects of the commercially available synthetic foams. Findings should enable an easier and more accurate selection of trabecular bone replicas for a specific research question.

Series on Biomechanics, Vol.34, No.4 (2020), 65-75

Keywords: Histomorphometry; micro-CT; synthetic foam; trabecular bone

Date published: 2020-12-11