Modified porous microstructure for improving bone compatibility of poly-ether-ether-ketone

Poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK) has been the promising implantation material since it was first applied in the medical field in the 1990s. With its irreplaceable advantages, such as high mechanical and biological properties, human-like tensile strength and elastic modulus, and excellent physical and chemical stability, PEEK has been regarded as an excellent implantation material, and has been widely used in orthopedics, reconstructive surgery, and dentistry. However, PEEK also has an obvious shortcoming of poor bone compatibility due to its inherent hydrophobicity and bio-inertia, which is a great challenge for its prospect. In the present study, based on the acknowledged fact that enhancing the roughness of PEEK can improve its bone compatibility, modified porous PEEK implants with different porosities (40%, 50%, 60% and solid) were fabricated by Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), and experiments in vitro and in vivo were conducted to determine whether the bone compatibility can be improved, and compare the biological properties between different porosities. These results indicate that both in vitro and in vivo, the bone compatibility of the modified porous PEEK has been strongly improved, when compared to the control group (solid PEEK implants). In vitro and in vivo, the 40%-porosity-PEEK possessed the highest bone compatibility.