This work reports the modification of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) in order to enlarge their application range, for example, as biomaterials by increasing its hydrophilicity. A TPU was successfully modified by using three different strategies: ultra-violet irradiation (UV), gamma irradiation (GI) and interfacial modification (IM). The results suggested the possibility of modifying the polyurethane-based surface either with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) or hydroxylethyl methacrylate (HEMA) or hexamethylene diamine (HMD) or chitosan (CT) by using any of these methods. The properties of the grafted PU were evaluated by surface, structural and thermal analysis. The results suggest that, among the methods studied in this work, the modification by gamma irradiation (GI) seems to be the most promising, since this method gives high values of grafting yield and has the advantage of providing a clean modification, meaning that no initiator is needed

Recently, the definition of coating procedures which leads to strong cell repellent surfaces has been an extremely important issue. In the present study, the cell repellency of thermoplastic polyurethane material (ElastollanA (R) 1180A50) surfaces was achieved by chemical treatment. Samples of ElastollanA (R) 1180A50 processed by injection molding, were oxidized with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and then impregnated with poly(ethylene glycol). The oxidation time was evaluated as were the effects of the PEG impregnation. Of all the evaluated modifications, a surface oxidation for 2 h, followed by impregnation with poly(ethylene glycol) resulted in the best cell repellent surface

In summary, the novel screw design is a promising strategy to develop all-ceramic fixation devices for ACL reconstructions, which may eliminate some drawbacks of the current interference screws.

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