• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.243-247
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• 2014

The Spinal cage is the cage-shaped implantable medical device used to treat structural abnormalities caused by degenerative intervertebral disks. In order to secure enough space to provide the mechanical stability and the intervertebral fusion, after removing the intervertebral disc, the Spinal cage is transplanted between the intervertebral space. A hammer is used to push the spinal cage into a narrow space during the spinal cage transplant surgery. Due to the impact and pressure, damage occurs frequently on the spinal cage. In this study, a test model is constructed to measure the value of impulse generally applied on the Spinal cage. The figures of internal impulse before and after the improvement of the Spinal cage are then compared to suggest direction to improve the reliability of the spinal cage.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2020

Recently, porous additive manufactured(AM) cages have been introduced to provide more desirable stiffness and may be beneficial to bone ingrowth. They are designed to attempt to reduce the subsidence problem of traditional titanium cage and to get osseointegrative property that PEEK doesn't have. This study was performed to evaluate the mechanical performance of newly developed lumbar porous AM cages. Three types of mechanical tests were performed in accordance with the ASTM standards: Static compression, compression-shear, and subsidence tests. The porous AM cages with 60% porosity showed similar device stiffness and strength as the various products submitted to FDA 510(k), and their wider contact area improved the subsidence test results by about 50%. In conclusion, the porous AM cages developed in this study were considered mechanically safe and could be an alternative to solid PEEK cages.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.158-164
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• 2019

The interbody fusion cage used to replace the degenerative intervertebral disc is largely composed of titanium-based biomaterials and biopolymer materials such as PEEK. Titanium is characterized by osseointergration and biocompatibility, but it is posed that the phenomenon such as subsidence can occur due to high elastic modulus versus bone. On the other hand, PEEK can control the elastic modulus in a similar to bone, but there is a problem that the osseointegration is limited. The purpose of this study was to implement titanium material's stiffness similar to that of bone by applying cellular structure, which is able to change the stiffness. For this purpose, the cellular structure A (BD, Body Diagonal Shape) and structure B (QP, Quadral Pod Shape) with porosity of 50%, 60%, 70% were proposed and the reinforcement structure was suggested for efficient strength reinforcement and the stiffness of each model was evaluated. As a result, the stiffness was reduced by 69~93% compared with Ti6Al4V ELI material, and the stiffness most similar to cortical bone is calculated with the deviation of about 12% in the BD model with 60% porosity. In this study, the interbody fusion cage made of Ti6Al4V ELI material with stiffness similar to cortical bone was implementing by applying cellular structure. Through this, it is considered that the limitation of the metal biomaterial by the high elastic modulus may be alleviated.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.273-282
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• 2023

In this study, the surface of Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) disks was modified to have a hydrophilic surface by applying a coating of Polyethylene glycol (PEG), Hyaluronic acid(HA), and Poly-Dopamine(PDA). The investigation aimed to examine whether the coated surfaces showed enhanced bioactivity for orthopedic applications compared to the pure PEEK. The microstructure, surface characteristics, and wettability of PEEK coated with PEG, HA, and PDA were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy(SEM), FT-IR spectrophotometer, Roughness Measurement System, Micro-Vickers, and Contact angle measurement. The mechanical properties were analyzed using a tensile testing machine, while the MTT assay for cell activity was analyzed using a microplate reader to measure optical density. According to the SEM and FT-IR results, the composition and crystal structure of PEG, HA and PDA coated surface were verified. Also, roughness, hardness, and contact angle were all improved in the coating group compared to the pure PEEK. We checked the HepG2 cell proliferation by using MTT assay on 7th days. In MTT assay results, HepG2 cell proliferation was increased with time, at 7 days, cell viability on discs coated with PDA was significantly higher than pure PEEK, PEG, HA coated group. PDA coated PEEK exhibited the highest surface roughness, hardness, contact angle, and cell activity. The mechanical properties were not affected by the presence of the coating.