Silicon Nitride: Better than PEEK?

Posted: March 19, 2012
Find more content on: Orthopaedic Design, Manufacturing, Materials, Orthopaedic Technology

Is silicon nitride, a material used in the space shuttle stronger than PEEK? The answer is yes, and it also has antimicrobial properties, making it a win-win material in orthopaedics.

Read the full profile about Amedica on MD+DI's site.

Salt Lake City-based Amedica is using silicon nitride in its implants, because it is stronger than PEEK and has better imaging characteristics than PEEK and titanium.

In a recent Amedica profile featured in MD+DI:

“Alongside silicone nitride’s strength and imaging characteristics, early clinical results suggest it also has antibacterial properties and the ability to support enhanced bone ongrowth,” explains Eric Olson, CEO and president of the company. Those properties of the material have been investigated in vivo in animal studies at Brown University (Providence, RI). Its antimicrobial property could be especially useful because infections resulting from orthopedic implants are common and expensive problems for hospitals. “Keep in mind that we saw this effect in the lab without using any kind of drug,” explains biomedical engineering professor Thomas Webster, PhD. “We are pretty excited about the potential to decrease bacterial growth without having to prescribe a drug.”

--Maria Fontanazza | maria.fontanazza@ubm.com

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Silicon Nitride

Submitted by wilsbill on March 21, 2012 - 10:16am.

Silicon Nitride is a very interesting material from an implant point of view. It has high strength and is very hard. On the other side of the equation, it is has very low ductility and it is very expensive.

An alternative material for impant use could be Silicon alloys which are almost as hard as Silicon Nitride but with some ductility and much cheaper and easier to form.
Silicon alloys are a relatively new class of materials based on solid solutions of Nitrogen oxygen and aluminium in silicon. They have characteristics of both metals and ceramics.

silicon Nitrite for prosthesis

Submitted by doctorcabrea on March 22, 2012 - 8:46am.

The problem with implants in Total hip surgery or total prosthesis surgery in not the material used in the implant.
This type of surgery is very invasive,aggressive, expensive and not free from complications especially in the elderly. Their manufacture requires large amount of energy and many patients are buried with their prosthesis making this surgery unfriendly with the environment.
There are new ideas like my method to resurface joints using arthroscopy to minimize total hip implants.
With my method it is possible to reach the hip joint from behind avoiding the removal of the neck and head of the femur, therefore the need of hip prosthesis in cases of arthrosis.
See patent GB 2344290 "Device for replacing or repairing a joint"