Prosthetic implants coated with hydroxylapatite and process for treating prosthetic implants plasma-sprayed with hydroxylapatite

摘要

An implant and a process for treating the same wherein the implant has a highly pure coating of crystalline hydroxylapatite (HA). The implant is initially coated with HA using a plasma spraying technique and is then subjected to a two stage process, including a hydrothermal treatment stage and a leaching stage. The resulting implant is highly crystalline, containing only a small percentage of amorphous calcium phosphate and essentially being free of calcium hydroxide, calcium oxide, and calcium carbonate.