Materials for Bone Disorders is written by a cross-disciplinary team of research scientists, engineers, and clinicians and bridges the gap between materials science and bone disorders, providing integrated coverage of biomaterials and their applications. The bioceramics, biopolymers, composites, and metallic materials used in the treatment of bone disorders are introduced, as are their interactions with cells, biomolecules, and body tissues. The main types of bone disorder and disease are covered including osteoporosis, spinal injury, load bearing joint diseases, bone cancer, and forms of cranio-maxillofacial disorders. Bone disorders are common across all ages. Various forms of bone disorders can change the lifestyle of otherwise normal and healthy people. With the development of novel materials, many forms of bone disorders are becoming manageable, allowing people to lead a fairly normal life. Specific consideration is given to areas where recent advances are enabling new treatments, such as the use of resorbable ceramics in bone tissue engineering and drug delivery, newer polymer-based implants in load-bearing contexts, and engineering biomaterials surfaces including modifying surface chemistry. Ethical and regulatory issues are also explored.

One of the key challenges current biomaterials researchers face is identifying which of the dizzying number of highly specialized characterization tools can be gainfully applied to different materials and biomedical devices. Since this diverse marketplace of tools and techniques can be used for numerous applications, choosing the proper characterization tool is highly important, saving both time and resources. Characterization of Biomaterials is a detailed and multidisciplinary discussion of the physical, chemical, mechanical, surface, in vitro and in vivo characterization tools and techniques of increasing importance to fundamental biomaterials research. Characterization of Biomaterials will serve as a comprehensive resource for biomaterials researchers requiring detailed information on physical, chemical, mechanical, surface, and in vitro or in vivo characterization. The book is designed for materials scientists, bioengineers, biologists, clinicians and biomedical device researchers seeking input on planning on how to test their novel materials, structures or biomedical devices to a specific application. Chapters are developed considering the need for industrial researchers as well as academics.