Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 24, 1995 TAG: 9503240133
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Boston Globe
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
For many patients, including the 300,000 Americans who suffer a broken hip each year, the new material could mean less pain after surgery and far shorter hospital stays, which in turn could translate into millions of dollars saved.
The new material, called Norian SRS and described by its inventors in today's issue of the journal Science, becomes as strong as real bone about 12 hours after injection.
Because it is virtually identical to natural bone in its mineral composition, the substance is subject to the same perpetual process of resorption and repair all bone undergoes. That means it is molded by the body into the correct shape and is replaced within months by new, real bone.
And because the new material is biocompatible, it does not trigger an immune response, as usually happens with foreign substances, that would cause the body to reject it.
The material, now in clinical trials at 12 centers nationwide, can be used to hold together splintered bones, to fill gaps in bones caused by osteoporosis and to reinforce the metal plates and screws used for severely broken bones.
The bone paste has been tested successfully in a handful of patients with wrist fractures at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, as well as in clinical trials for hip, knee, shoulder and wrist fractures in Sweden and the Netherlands.
Although further tests are necessary, Dr. Tom Broekhuizen, chief of trauma surgery at the Academic Medical Center in the Netherlands, told Science, ``if it is what we think it is, it could be revolutionary.''
by CNB