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Materials


Mixing metals


Choosing the right material is crucial in the medical device industry, as infection or failure is a major issue for healthcare. Implants are one such area where infection is one of the leading causes of failure post-surgery. With titanium as the go-to material for surgical implants, it is not the best-suited material for resisting infection. But one novel surgical implant managed to kill 87% of bacteria in laboratory testing, using 3D printing to add 10% tantalum and 3% copper to promote cell growth and fi ght off infection. Patrick McGuire speaks to Amit Bandyopadhyay, Boeing distinguished professor at WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, and Indranath Mitra, postdoctoral research fellow of physiology and biomedical engineering at the Mayo Clinic, about the importance of material selection and how choosing the right materials can lead to better infection control.


Extreme Manufacturing shows that specific metal combinations can significantly reduce post-surgical infections associated with implants. Test results outlined in the paper showed that a novel implant developed by Washington State University researchers killed 87% of bacteria that cause staph infections in laboratory tests.


M 104


etallic surgical implants are a common sight in healthcare, but a scientific paper recently published in the International Journal of


The objective behind the implant was to find a way to make its surface inherently antibiotic permanent, explains Amit Bandyopadhyay, Boeing distinguished professor at WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a co-author of the paper. “That meant not adding a dose of medicine to kill the bacteria,” he says. Bandyopadhyay and his fellow co-author, Indranath Mitra, postdoctoral research fellow of physiology and biomedical engineering at the Mayo Clinic, wanted to match or exceed the antibacterial


Medical Device Developments / www.nsmedicaldevices.com


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