Resorbable macroporous bioactive glass scaffold and method of manufacture

1. A method of manufacturing a resorbable, macroporous bioactive glass scaffold comprising the steps of:

creating a mixture comprising by mass percent approximately 24-45% CaO, 34-50% SiO 2 , 0-25% Na 2 O, 5-17% P 2 O 5 , 0-5% MgO and 0-1% CaF 2 ;

melting said mixture at a temperature ranging approximately from 1380° C. to 1480° C.;

cooling, crushing and sieving said mixture to obtain glass powders having granularity of approximately 40-300 microns;

adding into said glass powders by mass percent approximately 20-70% of at least one pore forming agent;

adding approximately by volume percent 30-60% of an aqueous solution comprising by mass percent approximately 20% acrylamide monomers, 2% N,N′-methylene acrylamide cross-linking agents and 5-10% polyacrylic acid dispersant;

adding by mass percent approximately 1-5% ammonium persulfates and 1-5% N, N,N′,N′-tetramethyl ethylene diamine, and stirring to produce a well-proportioned slurry;

pouring said slurry into dies and producing pellets by heating said slurry to a temperature of approximately 30° C. to 80° C. to induce cross-linking for a period of approximately 1-10 hours, then drying said pellets at a temperature of approximately 100° C.;

heating said pellets to remove organics at a temperature of approximately 400° C.; and

sintering said pellets for approximately 1-5 hours in temperatures ranging from approximately 750° C. to 900° C.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the granularity of the said pore-forming agents is chosen to be between approximately 50-600 microns.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said at least one pore forming agent is chosen from the group of pore forming agents consisting of polyethylene glycol, polyvinyl alcohol, paraffin and polystyrene-divinylbenzene.