Porous bone screw

1. A bone screw comprising a one-piece screw body comprised at least partially of a rigid foam and having at least one external thread thereon, the screw body being headless, a bore extending through an axial length of the screw body to define a cannula and providing the screw body with an annular shape having a radial wall thickness, at least a central portion of the screw body being formed of said rigid foam which defines a matrix defining a plurality of inter-connected pores therein having a size of about 30 to about 500 microns, the inter-connected pores being disposed throughout the complete radial wall thickness of the screw body from an outer surface of the screw body to an inner surface thereof within the cannula such as to permit bone in-growth through the complete radial wall thickness of the annular screw body, the inter-connected pores and the cannula thereby respectively allowing bone in-growth through the complete radial wall thickness and the axial length of the screw body.

2. The bone screw as defined in claim 1 , wherein the bone screw is composed entirely of the rigid foam and defines said plurality of inter-connected pores through the entire screw body.

3. The bone screw as defined in claim 1 , wherein the rigid foam is a porous sintered metal made from metal powders using powder metallurgy, the rigid metallic foam forming a metal matrix defining the pores throughout.

4. The bone screw as defined in claim 3 , wherein the rigid metallic foam comprises at least one of titanium, tantalum, magnesium, iron or an alloy of any one or more thereof.

5. The bone screw as defined in claim 1 , wherein the bone screw is a compression screw and the screw body includes at least a threaded leading end and a treaded trailing end, the threaded leading end having a pitch greater than that of the trailing end.

6. The bone screw as defined in claim 5 , wherein the screw body includes a central portion between the threaded leading end and the treaded trailing end, the central portion being threaded such that the central portion, the leading and trailing ends form a continuously threaded screw body.

7. The bone screw as defined in claim 6 , wherein the pitch of the continuously threaded screw body varies gradually along the axial length of the continuously threaded screw body.

8. The bone screw as defined in claim 1 , wherein at least the porous portion of the screw body has an external coating thereon, the coating including at least one of a bone growth promoting material, a pharmaceutical healing agent and a structurally reinforcing cement.

9. The bone screw as defined in claim 1 , wherein the cannula includes at least one of a bone growth promoting material, a pharmaceutical healing agent and a structurally reinforcing cement therein.

10. The bone screw as defined in claim 1 , wherein the bone screw is a scaphoid fracture fixation screw, the axial length of the screw body being from about 10 to about 30 mm, the central portion having an external diameter of about 3 to about 4 mm, and the cannula having a diameter from about 1.0 mm to about 1.4 mm.

11. The bone screw as defined in claim 1 , wherein the size of said pores is about 50 to about 400 microns.

12. The bone screw as defined in claim 1 , wherein the foam is a non-ferromagnetic metallic foam.

13. The bone screw as defined in claim 1 , wherein the radial wall thickness of the annular screw body increases from a leading end to a trailing end of the screw.

14. Use of the bone screw as defined in claim 1 for fracture fixation of the scaphoid.

15. A compression bone screw for fixation of the scaphoid comprising a leading end, a headless trailing end and at least one external thread therebetween, a bore extending an axial length of the screw between the leading and trailing ends, the bore being radially centered to define an annular screw body having a radial wall thickness, and the screw being formed in one-piece by a porous metallic foam, the porous metallic foam defining a plurality of inter-connected pores therein which are substantially free of material until bone in-growth through the pores occurs, the plurality of inter-connected pores being disposed through the complete radial wall thickness of the bone screw, said bone in-growth being permitted radially through the complete radial wall thickness and axially through the bore.

16. The compression bone screw as defined in claim 15 , wherein the bone screw is composed entirely of the porous metallic foam and said plurality of inter-connected pores are disposed throughout the entire bone screw.

17. The compression bone screw as defined in claim 15 , wherein the porous metallic foam comprises at least one of titanium, magnesium, tantalum, iron or an alloy of any one or more thereof.

18. The compression bone screw as defined in claim 15 , wherein the porous metallic foam is a porous sintered metal made from metal powders using powder metallurgy.

19. The compression bone screw as defined in claim 15 , wherein the radial wall thickness of the annular screw body increases from the leading end to the trailing end of the screw.

20. The compression bone screw as defined in claim 15 , wherein each of the plurality of pores has a size between about 30 and about 500 microns.

21. The compression bone screw as defined in claim 20 , wherein the size of said pores is about 50 to about 400 microns.

22. The compression bone screw as defined in claim 15 , wherein at least one of an outer surface of the screw body and the cannula has a coating thereon which includes one or more of a bone growth promoting material, a pharmaceutical healing agent and a structurally reinforcing cement.