Hydroxyapatite Coatings

A series of investigations over the past several years has evaluated a number of implant materials with and without plasma-sprayed hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings for use in load-bearing implant applications. HA-coated implants have exhibited greater interface shear attachment characteristics when compared to uncoated implants; these results have been demonstrated with dense (flat), porous-coated, and macrotextured implant surfaces. Maximum attachment strength also was found to occur within a shorter period of time postoperatively with the HA-coated samples, indicating a more rapid tissue adaptation to the implant surfaces. Plasma-sprayed HA coatings provide an osteophilic and osteoconductive surface that increases both the bone-implant attachment strength, as well as the rate of bone adaptation to the HA-coated implant surface.