Bioactive Medical Coatings for Bone Tissue Engineering

Over the past 20 - 30 years, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of bone replacement procedures annually, and there now have an estimated total cost of US$140 billion worldwide. The conventional engineering approach of repairing bone fracture is to implant a synthetic metallic prosthesis. However, bone healing often or sometimes fails and this result leads to substantial levels of disability and consequent long-term worldwide healthcare costs. Therefore, recently, attention has been focused on applying a bioactive coating on the surface of a prosthetic implant to enhance biocompatibility and bioactivity. This article will consider the most relevant developments in this emerging field, addressing three main coating techniques namely plasma spraying, magnetron sputtering and biomimetic deposition.