Hydroxyapatite ceramic bodies with tailored mechanical properties for different applications.

A perfect control on the final ceramic features will enable the research/clinical community to spread the use of calcium phosphate ceramic bodies to a large number of applications and/or requirements. The mechanical properties of hydroxyapatite ceramic bodies manufactured by different techniques and with different porosities is presented. The flexural strength, hardness, fracture toughness, surface roughness, and their evolution after immersion in SBF are studied. An increase of the mechanical properties with density is observed. The factors governing these results are analyzed. The increase of the porosity percentage of the bodies results in an increase on the surface roughness. The degradation studies show that the HA ceramics keep their integrity and mechanical properties under physiological conditions during the soaking time studied. The OHAp ceramic bodies with controlled porosity could be appropriated for hard tissue substitution or as a carriers for controlled delivery of drugs or as scaffolds for tissue engineering. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 60: 159-166, 2002