Types of Orthopaedic Titanium Rods

 One of the most popular orthopaedic rods used today is titanium rods due to their compatibility with the body as well as flexibility. Titanium rods are available as pure titanium and also as alloy material such as aluminum or vanadium. These rods usually comes expandable or not expandable and have a treatment matter to enable bone strength.

Pure Titanium Rods

Pure titanium rods are strong and flexible. This form of rod is often used for orthopedic implants that require bending to form a shape.

Alloy Titanium

Titanium alloy rods are stronger than all the other titanium rods and often used when strength is the utmost importance. The drawback to this type of rods their friction rate is high and may cause the titanium implants components to rub against each other.

Expanding Titanium Rods and Non-Expanding Rods

The advantage of using expanding titanium rods is its ability to expand to allow for bone growth. Thus, this feature makes it ideal for children who are still growing. With that said, there are also disadvantages to using the expanding rod such as its inability to work effectively on small bones because of its thickness. Thus, it is more suitability for large bone implants. Non-expanding rods in comparison to the expanding rods offer more versatility as well as sizes. However, it cannot accommodate bone growth and will require replacement if the bones grew.

Coating and Treatment

Titanium rods usually have a coating or some form of treatment to improve wear as well bone growth while helping bone adhesion. The materials use to coat the rods may include radio waves, lasers, hot pressure or ionic rays, and the chemical treatment uses   based products such as sodium hydroxide or hydrogen peroxide.

Nanotubes

Nanotubes is a new technique used on titanium rods to enhance the surface of bone cells to facilitate bone implant adhesion and eliminate the need for using platinum. There are ongoing research using stem cells and nanotubes to help bone growth.