Biocompatibility of Biomaterials Date: 29/01/2023 | Views: 930

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Biocompatibility is related to the behavior of biomaterials inside the body in various contexts. The term refers to the ability of a material to perform with an appropriate host response. The term's ambiguity reflects the ongoing development of insights into how biomaterials interact with the human body and, eventually, how those interactions determine the clinical success of a medical device (such as a pacemaker, hip replacement, or stent). Modern medical devices and prostheses are often made of more than one material, so it might not always be sufficient to talk about the biocompatibility of a specific material. Since the immune response and repair functions in the body are so complicated, it is not adequate to describe the biocompatibility of a single material in relation to a single cell type or tissue. Sometimes one hears of biocompatibility testing, an extensive battery of in vitro tests that are used per ISO 10993 (or other similar standards) to determine if a particular material (or rather biomedical product) is biocompatible. These tests do not determine the biocompatibility of a material. However, they constitute an essential step towards animal testing and clinical trials that will determine the material's biocompatibility in a given application and, thus, medical devices such as implants or drug delivery devices. Research results have concluded that while performing in vitro cytotoxicity testing of biomaterials, "the authors should carefully specify the test conditions and comparison of different studies should be carried out with caution."