Vitrium is fabricated with both micropores and interconnected macropores that create a device with a large surface area that can interact with the body.
When Vitrium is implanted, a number of chemical reactions take place sequentially with body fluids which modifies the implant surface and attracts the body’s own natural bone forming constituents, including bone morphogenic proteins, cytokines and pluri-potential cells. These early reactions create a silica gel-like layer that facilitates binding of these moieties and allows for rapid precipitation of calcium and phosphate.
The calcium phosphate layer crystallizes into a calcium hydroxyapatite mineral phase that helps the cells differentiating into osteoblasts to generate the extracellular matrix that results in bone formation.
The rate of these surface reactions, along with the attendant gradual resorption of the bioactive glass matrix results in robust bone formation and replacement of the bioactive glass with newly formed bone as shown in this 8 week post-op image (rabbit femur study).