Biodegradable silk screws start a new era of fixation in the human body

Photo courtesy of the interviewee

The left is the image taken after using metal screws, and the right is the image taken after using silk screws

The degradable silk screw can take advantage of its enzymatic hydrolysis in the human environment to realize the restoration of human body functions and gradually degrade at the same time, and finally does not remain in the body, thereby avoiding the trouble of secondary surgery

Hard metal materials have always been the first choice for internal fixation surgery after fractures, but the removal of the metal internal fixation after the wound has healed often requires a second operation

Not long ago, the degradable silk screw jointly developed by the team of Professor Lei Wei and Associate Professor Feng Yafei from Xijing Hospital of the Air Force Military Medical University and the team of Researcher Tao Hu from the Shanghai Institute of Microsystems of the Chinese Academy of Sciences can take advantage of its enzymatic hydrolysis in the human environment to realize the human body The function is restored and degraded gradually at the same time, and will not remain in the body in the end, thus avoiding the trouble of secondary operation

Based on clinical needs to develop new materials for internal fixation

In the long-term clinical application process, metal materials gradually showed three major defects: First, metal internal fixation often requires a second operation to remove, which greatly increases the pain and economic burden of patients

How to eliminate stress shielding and develop materials that are more compatible with bone mechanics? How to achieve the safe degradation of materials in the human body and keep away from the damage caused by the second operation? How to avoid metal artifacts so that patients no longer worry about postoperative imaging examinations? These are all major issues before medical scientists and scientists

In view of the shortcomings of current metal materials, scientists and medical scientists have made countless attempts to develop absorbable screws made of metal magnesium, inorganic hydroxyapatite and synthetic organic polylactic acid (PLA)

With the continuous development of materials science and technology, absorbable internal fixation materials are constantly improved.

Concentrate on technical research to realize silk cocoon into "steel"

China was the first country to raise sericulture and reel silk, and gave birth to a brilliant silk civilization

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The previous view is that the weak mechanical properties of absorbable screws are the main reason for limiting their applications

When the degradable silk screw is implanted in the human body, it is needed to change from "tangible" to "no trace" in a timely manner

Broad application prospects will benefit more patients in the future

In May of this year, the patient Zhang Qiang (a pseudonym) accidentally sprained, causing a fracture of the distal left femur

It is reported that this is the fifth patient who has used degradable silk screws in Xijing Hospital

Technical novelty search shows that there are no clinical examples of silk protein materials used in human orthopedics in the world

"The research and development and clinical application of biodegradable silk materials have solved the three major defects of metal internal fixation