Metallic materials are widely used in clinical medicine due to their high applicability to mechanical properties and fatigue resistance, and are suitable for the implantation of bearing components. Various metal materials such as stainless steel, titanium based and cobalt based alloys have been widely used in clinical practice and have achieved certain therapeutic effects.

However, the complex human environment can lead to material corrosion and the release of toxic substances, which greatly reduces the biocompatibility of metal materials. In addition, the elastic modulus of some metal materials differs significantly from that of human bone tissue, which is not conducive to the growth and remodeling of new bone, and can easily lead to secondary fractures. These adverse conditions limit the application of metal materials as biomedical materials.

Tantalum

Tantalum, also a metal material, has excellent mechanical properties and anti fatigue properties, so it is widely used in clinical applications, especially in the field of orthopedics, replacing human bone tissue to play a load-bearing role, and has achieved significant clinical efficacy. Tantalum metal materials have more advantages over traditional metal artificial implants in terms of strength, biocompatibility, and stability compared to human tissues, so the development of tantalum metal in the medical field has a broader prospect.

Properties of tantalum

1. Good corrosion resistance

At room temperature, tantalum does not react with hydrochloric acid, concentrated nitric acid, or even aqua regia, and ordinary inorganic salts do not corrode it.

2. Good biocompatibility

Unlike traditional medical metal materials, biological tissue grows on tantalum after implantation for a period of time, just like it grows on real bones. Therefore, tantalum is also known as "metallophilic"

3. Appropriate elastic modulus

Tantalum with a special pore structure has an elastic modulus between human cancellous bone and cortical bone, and is particularly suitable for bone replacement, joint replacement, and human tissue filling.

Tantalum products

Tantalum wire

Tantalum can be made into filaments with a diameter of 0.2 mm, which can be used as a tension resistant suture that is easy to sterilize and less irritating to surrounding tissues for clinical surgery.

Tantalum sheet

When fractures or nonunions occur in the upper and lower limbs or other parts of the body, tantalum metal can be made into tantalum sheets of different shapes and sizes to repair the cracks and nonunions in order to achieve functional healing.

Tantalum bracket

Due to the strong ductility of tantalum metal, the diameter of tantalum wire made from it can better adapt to its fluctuations in the artery, achieving accurate and rapid release. Some scholars used the coronary artery of miniature pigs as a research model, and implanted a tantalum wire stent made of tantalum metal into the body. After 6 months of observation, it was found that after implantation of the stent, there was no rejection phenomenon in the local tissue of the coronary artery, and there were seasonal proliferative changes in the neointima.

Porous tantalum joint

Porous tantalum has obvious advantages in the use of joint materials. Due to its elasticity, when interacting with cortical bone, it can produce slight deformation without fragmentation. In addition, the friction coefficient of tantalum metal is higher than other metals, so the stability of tantalum metal after implantation is relatively high.

Tantalum coated products

Many metal materials can be used in the medical field due to their unique properties, but due to their lack of biocompatibility, their advantages cannot be used in clinical applications. Now, we can apply tantalum metal with strong corrosion resistance and stability to the surface of these metal materials, enabling those metal materials that have unique properties but were previously taboo for low biocompatibility and cannot be used for clinical purposes to be reused for clinical purposes.