Iranian Surgeons Conduct Operation on Patient's Skull with Home-Made Absorbable Implant
A team of Iranian scientists at a knowledge-based company were able to design and produce a bioprinting device and prove its clinical application in the reconstruction of jaw, face, and skull bones.
“Traditional methods use titanium implants that should be removed after a while with another surgery. However, our scaffold is made of biomaterials and after implantation, it gradually dissolves in the body and gives way to natural bone tissue. This process is both less expensive and more comfortable for the patient. These materials, which include biocompatible polymers, hydrogels, and ceramics, are designed with compositions that closely resemble the mineral structure of human bone. Unlike some methods that use cadaveric bone or the person’s own body, these scaffolds are completely synthetic and do not carry the risk of disease transmission,” said Majid Haji Hossein Ali, the founder of the company.
He explained that in skull surgeries, the use of titanium causes problems like MRI contraindications and nerve stimulation, adding, “However, our bioscaffold easily replaces bone without these complications.”
“Several successful cases of using our product have also been reported, including the successful reconstruction of the skull structure of a woman whose bone under her eye was damaged in an accident. The surgery was performed at Sina Hospital in Tehran, and the patient’s eye returned to its normal position after repair,” Haji Hossein Ali said.
In a relevant development in March, an Iranian researcher had also succeeded in producing a special injectable bone-building paste by utilizing the properties of bioactive materials and quercetin which helps repair of bone injuries faster and more effectively.
“Bioactive glass pastes are widely used, specially in minimally invasive surgeries and the repair of complex bone defects,” said Mehri Sohrabi, a PhD student in Materials Engineering at the University of Science and Technology.
She pointed to the use of bioactive materials, including hydroxyapatite and bioactive glasses in bone and tooth repair, and said, “These materials are known as suitable options due to their osteogenic guiding properties, non-toxicity, and ability to form chemical bonds with tissue. Hydrogels have also attracted attention due to their structural similarity to the extracellular matrix of natural tissues and their potential use in drug release and tissue repair systems.”
Sohrabi underlined the importance of biocompatibility and non-toxicity of injectable hydrogels, and said, "Natural polymers like hyaluronic acid and sodium alginate are widely used in this field due to their desirable properties."
“In this study, quercetin has been used for the first time in the composition of injectable pastes. Quercetin helps accelerate the repair of bone defects by providing osteogenesis guidance. The use of quercetin as a bone density enhancer has previously been approved orally and has also been investigated in polymer scaffolds and microspheres,” she noted.
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