| Titanium medical implants used in bone-anchored hearing aids and dental prostheses, may not be as robust as is commonly believed, according to new evidence from scientists at the University of Birmingham. Research has found evidence to suggest that in environments where there is no significant wear process, microscopic particles of Ti can be found in the surrounding tissue. The researchers say this can potentially be pro-inflammatory and affect the performance of the device. Globally, more than 1,000 tonnes of titanium (Ti) is implanted into patients in the form of biomedical devices every year. Metallic prostheses, fixation and anchoring devices are used extensively for orthopaedic, craniofacial and dental rehabilitation and their effects on the body are widely perceived to be predictable following initial implantation. For this study, tissue was obtained from patients undergoing scheduled revision surgery associated with bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHA) at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust. Soft tissues surrounding commercially pure Titanium anchorage devices were investigated using microfocus synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy at the Diamond Light Source (Oxford, UK). "The results showed, for the first time, a scattered and heterogenous distribution of Ti in inflamed tissues taken from around failing skin-penetrating Ti implants," the authors report." Wear processes and implant debris were unlikely to be major contributors to the problem, they concluded. ‘In the absence of obvious macroscopic wear or loading processes, we propose that the Ti in the tissue results from micro-motion and localised corrosion in surface crevices." The research is published in in the Journal of the Royal Society.
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