Artificial bone and method for producing the same
An artificial bone which is excellent in the ability to form bone in a living body, reliably thereof, and has high mechanical strength. The process comprises the steps of: mixing granules, composed of a titanium or a titanium alloy powder and an organic binder, with a particulate pore-forming material, pressure-molding the mixture to obtain a molded body, firing the molded body at 1200° C. to obtain a porous body, bringing the porous body into contact with an aqueous alkali solution, subsequently with water of 35° C. or higher for a period longer than that of contacting with the aqueous alkali solution and then heating the porous body at 100 to 650° C., preferably 200 to 600° C.
1. A method for producing artificial bone, comprising the steps of:
obtaining a porous body having a porosity and an average pore size lying within a range enclosed with lines connecting the X (porosity (%)) and Y (average pore size (μm)) coordinates of points A (46, 180), B (46, 520), C (50, 520), D (72, 220), and E (72, 180) by mixing granules having a granule size in the range of 0.1 to 2.0 mm, composed of a titanium or a titanium alloy powder having a maximum particle size of 180 μm or less and an organic binder, with a particulate pore-forming material, pressure-molding the mixture to obtain a molded body, and firing the molded body;
bringing the porous body into contact with an aqueous alkali solution; then bringing the porous body into contact with water until the alkali concentration of the porous body becomes 0.3% or less; and subsequently heating the porous body at 60 to 650° C.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pore-forming material is at least one selected from ammonium hydrogen carbonate and oxalic acid.
3. The method of claim 1 or 2 , wherein the step of heating is performed in the step of bringing the porous body into contact with water.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the organic binder is polyacetal.