Study on short-term implants of a fluorinated glass in bone

The behaviour of a proposed fluorinated glass implanted in femurs of rabbits for a short time was studied on contact microradiographs by electron microscopy and X-ray microprobe. The glass appeared to be surrounded by several bony trabeculae starting from the endosteal surface; some trabeculae were in contact with the outer part of the glass, X-ray analysis showed that degradation occurs in the outer layer only, although without uniformity. Si-rich zones were randomly located in the deeper part of the layer that externally formed zones with P and Ca content higher than that in the non-implanted glass.