Bone Adhesives in Trauma and Orthopedic Surgery

Abstract

Adhesives, especially bone adhesives, are resorbed and degraded to non-toxic products after fulfilling their function in contact with the living organism. The use of such bone adhesives has found growing interest in all fields of medicine in the last 50 years. The dream of trauma and orthopedic surgeons for alternatives to osteosynthesis and pins is reflected in the development of a variety of surrogates of biological or synthetic origin. Despite a longstanding history of research in this field up to now a clinically applicable alternative could not have been found on the field of bone gluing. The application consistently collapsed, because these adhesives were not tailored to the conditions met within the living organism. The following article is meant to provide an overview of the development, the state of the art and today's knowledge of bone adhesives. In addition, the article wants to pinpoint the tremendous progress made on this subject, made possible by the joint effort of basic researchers and surgeons. The results show that in the future a successful reconstructive surgery will emerge from the application of synthetic biomaterials.

Bioinspired dopamine-conjugated polyaspartamide as a novel and versatile adhesive material

“…Biomimetic materials, which are designed to mimic biological compounds, have been extensively reviewed as novel materials for various applications due to their specific functionality and desirable properties [1][2][3]. Bioadhesive reagents play an important role in many life systems, and the application potential of these kinds of adhesives has attracted a lot of research [4,5].…”

“…Mussels can achieve remarkable adhesion to various surfaces underwater using their byssal threads, which are heavily decorated with DOPA. Researchers have been looking for inspiration from mussels to produce bio-inspired wet adhesives for application as biomedical adhesives [3,[25][26][27]. Chung and Grubbs described newly designed DOPA-containing terpolymer adhesives that were prepared by the polymerization of three vinyl monomers: acrylic acid (AA), acrylic acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester (AANHS), and N-methacryloyl-3,4-dihydroxyl-L-phenylalanine (MDOPA), and suggested that these materials could represent clinically-useful biomedical adhesives [28].…”

Protein-based underwater adhesives and the prospects for their biotechnological production

“…Finally, to come full circle, the author of a 1905 book (Dawidowsky 1905) on the subtle art of manufacturing hide glues for carpentry mentioned in passing “…when cabinet makers cut themselves, they apply glue to the wound with the best success.” Plainly, the logic of repairing wounds with glue has been long appreciated and state-of-the-art glue of every period has been tested on tissue (Leonard 1970; Donkerwolcke et al 1998; Heiss 2006). Perhaps biomimetic adhesive development will lead to long-sought technology to replace the stitches, staples, and screws used to this day to repair damaged tissues.…”

A Water‐Borne Adhesive Modeled after the Sandcastle Glue of P. californica

“…Modern high-performance adhesives including epoxies, polyurethanes, cyanoacrylates, and polyacrylics have been tested and in some cases are used to repair superficial wounds but have not met the demands of deep tissue bonding or bone fixation. [1–3]…”