Replacement materials for facial reconstruction at the soft tissue–bone interface

The challenges faced by any tissue repair and regeneration process resulting from either trauma or disease are many and complex. Although it is of course impossible to identify any one anatomical region as being the most demanding in this respect, the craniofacial region surely qualifies. The judicious choice of available, well-defined, and tested repair materials to be used in the reconstruction process by the multidisciplinary team of reconstructive surgeons is critical. This chapter addresses one aspect of facial reconstruction that has been less well addressed in the literature, namely the materials used to repair and regenerate soft tissue both in terms of fillers and in terms of materials used at the hard-soft tissue interface

Surface properties of bioactivated ePTFE membranes

The surface properties of the biologically activated polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes were investigated. It was demonstrated that grafting of some ionic groups on the PTFE membrane surface enhanced the surface bioactivity. Several morphological and hydrophobicity variations depending on the solvent systems were also observed which could be attributed to the graft copolymerization of ethylene glycol methacrylate phosphate (MOEP). It was found that the inorganic apatite was formed on all grafted surfaces after immersing in simulated body fluid (SBF) for one week

Comparison of fresh and post-mortem human arterial tissue: an analysis using FT-IR microspectroscopy and chemometrics

Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) microspectroscopy and chemometric methods have been applied to the study of fresh and simulated post-mortem human arterial tissue. The results have shown that although physical differences were observed using light microscopy, no spectroscopic distinction could be made between these groups. The presence of collagen throughout the artery wall results in characteristic absorptions which may mask any biochemical changes that could otherwise have been detected by the FT-IR technique. Because the structure of the artery is unique, these findings should be regarded as tissue specific