078— Bone Fracture Repair: Testing Porous Properties of Calcium Phosphate Bioactive Cement and How it Compares to Pig Bone

Autografting is the most effective method used for supplementing and replacing bone. Autografting is a risky procedure because of its invasive nature. When performing the procedure of autografting, one needs to remove small sections of bone to use as a stimulant at the fracture site. This study is made to design an alternative method to replace autografting. In our study, we used pig fibula as a model to compare the properties of our novel cement which is Calcium Phosphate based. Calcium Phosphate Cement (CPC) is ideal because it is a biocompatible bone substitute composed of hydroxyapatite (HA), which constitutes a major component of human bone. The hydroxyapatite will serve as the base ingredient for the cement. The cement allows for the successful osseointegration and the initiation of bone growth. We focus our efforts into understanding and finding a consistent porosity size between the bone and the cement. This will be done by using different concentrations of chitosan and sodium bicarbonate. Results of the experiment show that the sample most similar to the bone sample was the chitosan.