In modern medicine most of time, patients’ damaged organs are replaced by artificial organs. Due to some bio incompatible issues of these transplants patients have to face lot of problems. But now there are 100% biocompatible prostheses. But the problem is these high quality custom made prostheses have a high manufacturing cost. So lot of patients like in developing countries suffer due to lack of sufficient prostheses for their problems. As an answer for this problem in sri lanka the bio medical engineering research group of the university of peradeniya, srilanka, have invented a method for manufacture low cost high quality prostheses using apatite. The sri lanka is popular for eppawala apatite which is a pure and large apatite source.
 |
| Image Credit :ConforMIS |
How they made the Low Cost Custom Made Prostheses
The orthopedic unit of peradeniya teaching hospital also joint with this research and verified that this new custom made prostheses using eppawala apatite are 100% biocompatible prostheses. That’s mean after the transplant the prosthesis, It does not do a harmful effect on the human body. According to the research group the manufacturing process involves the conversion of eppawala apatite into hydroxyapatite nanoparticles. These hydroxyapatite nanoparticles are proven similar to those naturally available in the human body. We can find this nanoparticles abundant in the human bones and teeth.
After this research they were able to transplant two custom made prostheses to two different orthopedic patients. One of these orthopedic patients has a cancer in his leg. By applying newly made prosthesis using the hydroxyapatite nanoparticles, the research group successfully saved the patient’s leg. All of these research informations are published on the University of Peradeniya’s Research Magazine, Hanthana Vision, (November 2015 issue.)
According to the sri Lankan economy this research is a very important one. Because, most of people in sri lanka depend on the government hospitals which are offer 100% free health service. If we see custom made prostheses in global market nearly cost from $5000 to $50000. According to the research group of university of peradeniya, It can be made a custom made prosthesis using hydroxyapatite nanoparticles with $300 of cost. So we can hope the poor patients will have a better future with free health services.