The hidden burden: A review of toxicity from femoral orthopedic implants

Locomotion is one of the essential characters of humans. During daily activity human body is subjected to several factors such as shock, stress, strain and other environmental factors. Most of times human body remains un-affected by these factors as they are contradicted by skin, fats, muscles, bones etc. But when the body is subjected to a trauma of higher impact an injury can occur which can affect capability of human body. One of the common injuries is bone fractures. Among the bone’s femur is susceptible to the fractures being the longest bone in the human body. Femoral fractures affect mobility of humans to the greater extent; in order to restore maximum function of femur, implants are used to treat fractures. Implants such as nails, Screws, plates are used to repair the bone. These implants are either made up of metals or alloys commonly used metals are titanium, gold, iron, cobalt, chromium and several others that have been reported to cause one or other toxicological episodes. Femoral fractures may take months to get treated and till the time implants are embedded in human body. Within this time frame implants start producing oxides that may result in several implications such as hypersensitivity, allergies, neurological problems and other toxicological implications.