Bone defects and complex fractures present significant challenges for orthopaedic surgeons.
Current surgical procedures involve the reconstruction and mechanical stabilisation of complex
fractures using metal hardware (i.e., wires, plates and screws). However, these procedures often
result in poor healing. An injectable, biocompatible, biodegradable bone adhesive that could glue
bone fragments back together would present a highly attractive solution. A bone adhesive that meets
the many clinical requirements for such an application has yet to be developed. While synthetic
and biological polymer-based adhesives (e.g., cyanoacrylates, PMMA, fibrin, etc.) have been used
effectively as bone void fillers, these materials lack biomechanical integrity and demonstrate poor
injectability, which limits the clinical effectiveness and potential for minimally invasive delivery. This
systematic review summarises conventional approaches and recent developments in the area of bone
adhesives for orthopaedic applications. The required properties for successful bone repair adhesives,
which include suitable injectability, setting characteristics, mechanical properties, biocompatibility
and an ability to promote new bone formation, are highlighted. Finally, the potential to achieve repair
of challenging bone voids and fractures as well as the potential of new bioinspired adhesives and the
future directions relating to their clinical development are discussed.
Metadata
Item Type:
Article (Published)
Refereed:
Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:
bone fractures; bioadhesives; bone repairing; biomimetic adhesives