Bioabsorbable materials first came into use in the 1980s and became a keen focus of research thereafter. One part of this dissertation deals with bioabsorbable mate- rials in foot and ankle surgery. In this part of the study, the long-term results of a bioabsorbable interpositional implant were investigated and bioabsorbable screws were compared with titanium alloy screws in two biomechanical specimens.
Two of the main findings of the study were that the incidence of HV surgery reduced significantly between 1997 and 2014 and that the rate of implant removal was as high as 27% after ankle fracture surgery. A clinical follow-up study found that the bioabsorbable interpositional implant achieved good long-term results in MTP- 1 surgery. Furthermore, in this dissertation, it is demonstrated that a bioabsorbable screw may work equally well in TMT-1 and MTP-1 arthrodesis, although a clinical study is still required to verify this finding.
This dissertation describes a surgical technique in TMT-1 and MTP-1 surgeries that could lead to the future replacement of titanium alloy and steel implants. In the first part of the study, it was found that these surgical techniques have recently gained popularity.
The finding of this dissertation demonstrate that the implant materials currently in use have drawbacks, such as stress-shielding and associated soft tissue irritation in addition to the significant economic cost to society of the large number of hardware removal operations. These bioabsorbable implant materials are, of course, still under development and still require more development and further research before they are ready to completely replace existing implant materials.
The doctoral dissertation of M.D. Nikke Partio in the field on medicine titled Trends in Foot and Ankle Surgery: Hardware Removal and the Use of Bioabsorbable Implants will be publicly examined at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology of Tampere University at 12 o'clock on Friday 1 October, 2021. The venue is FinnMedi 5 building auditorium, address: Biokatu 12. Docent Mikko Manninen from University of Helsinki will be the opponent while Professor Ville Mattila will act as the custos.
The event can be followed via remote connection.
The dissertation is available online at
http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-2095-9