pharmacological Research. Vol. 22. Supplement 2.1990 253

Biomaterials

Thomas Kiewitt

: History and Development

Implantation of endoprosthes is us:ng the bone cement PMMA was ac companied bythe risk of deep infec t ions s ince Sir Charnley invented this method.Consequently Buchholz in Hamburg added antibiotics to the cement, thuslowering the rate of late deep infections considerably. E. Merck developed area"dy to use bone cement cont aining gentamicin (Rerobactn-Palacos R) which isnow used as a standart in Germ any and other countries.

Klemm In Frankfurt cook up the principle of the loca l treatment using anantibiotic carrier system and applied it to the needs in septic bone surgery.

This resulted in the development of the Gentamicin-PMMA-Chain (Septopal) by E.Merck. Due to the high local levels of gentamicin after implantation ofSeptopal, numerous cases of chr onic osteomyelitis have been effectivelytreated since then, thus adding a new therapeutic pr inciple in orthopaedic andtraumarologtcal surgery, Refobacin Palaces Rand Septopal formi ng the basis ofresearch in local antibiotic treatment at E. Merck gave way to more researchprojects which will lead to new products for the treatment bone and softtissue infections. Further projects deal With the optimization of the mixingtechnique and application of bone cement.

1043-6618/90/22II0253-D1/$03 .00/0 © 1990 The Italian Pharmacological Society