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Custom cranial implants
The history of European ceramics has long been linked to the pursuit of excellence of goldsmiths who were fascinated by this clay from China, which fire alchemy transformed into a white, translucent, shiny and resonant material.
Today, ceramics is no longer just about tableware, and epicurean delights were followed by medical applications in plastic surgery and dentistry. Bioceramics, new materials with a composition similar to that of bone tissues, have thus emerged. As biocompatible materials, this similarity in chemical composition makes them bioactive, thus avoiding rejection once implanted inside the very aggressive environment of the body, but mainly allowing bone regrowth directly on their surface.
The chemists from Limoges have developed an alternative to bone grafting : stereolithography, an innovative method for manufacturing bioceramic parts with complex shapes. This technique consists in building the part layer after layer (thickness of 20 to 100 µm) via photopolymerisation using a laser, a mixture of ceramic powder and reactive resin. The control of the production machine, based on a patient’s scan file, ensures the direct transition from the virtual design to the real object.
For their part, clinicians are not new to this practice. The CHU (University Hospital) of Limoges can already pride itself on having successfully fitted hydroxyapatite (calcium phosphate bioceramics) cranial implants made using this technique, and perfectly tolerated by the body.
Laboratoire Science des procédés céramiques et de traitements de surface, CNRS-Université de Limoges
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