Development of antimicrobial hydroxyapatite coatings by CoBlast™

Metallic implants related infections are the second cause of surgery implant revision. The goal of this thesis was to obtain biocompatible and antibacterial hydroxyapatite coatings. Hydroxyapatite with variable concentrations of silver (1%, 2%, 4%, 7% and 10% m/m) was obtained from a modified, fast and simple, sol-gel procedure. Cell toxicity of the powders was studied having only registering mild toxicity with the sample of 10% Ag-HA. Titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) samples were coated with hydroxyapatite with silver (4%) via a new coating technique, CoBlast®. Cell toxicity and antibacterial properties of the coatings was studied. The antibacterial results were inconclusive. The coatings showed cell toxicity after 48 hours in contact