A mechanical evaluation of TiO2-gritblasted and Ca-P magnetron sputter coated implants placed into the trabecular bone of the goat: Part 1.

The influence of Ca-P magnetron sputter coated implants on the mechanical anchorage was evaluated in a goat model. Therefore, uncoated and coated screw designed commercially pure titanium TiO2-blasted implants were inserted into the trabecular bone of the femoral condyles of 12 goats. The thicknesses of the coatings were 0.1 micron (CaP-0.1), 1.0 micron (CaP-1) and 4.0 microns (CaP-4). In addition, uncoated TiO2-blasted implants (Ti) were used as control. Evaluation of the interface strength and appearance, using torque test and scanning electron microscopy, was done at implantation periods of 6 and 12 weeks. Although, especially at 6 weeks of implantation, the Ca-P coated implants showed higher failure torque values than the TiO2 blasted implants, the observed differences for type of implant and evaluation period were not significant (P > 0.1). SEM evaluation showed that all implants with failure values of more than 100 N conducted bone growth into their screw threads. In addition, we observed that the fracture plane for the CaP-4 implants was situated at the coating-implant interface or inside the coating. For the CaP-1 and CaP-0.1 the fracture line could not be determined definitely. For the Ti implants, the fracture torque testing resulted in failure at the bone-implant interface. Therefore, we conclude that all implants resulted in a good bonding strength with the surrounding bone. The sputtered Ca-P coatings seemed to improve the initial fixation of the TiO2 blasted implants.