Developing Mg Based Composites for Degradable Orthopedic Implant Applications: A Review

Research on developing degradable implants from metals is one of the potential research fields in the biomedical engineering. Magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) are the three metallic systems widely investigated as potential materials to manufacture degradable orthopedic and stent applications. Among them, magnesium-based implants have shown promising properties suitable for orthopedic and stent applications. In spite of several benefits such as biocompatibility, non-toxicity and degradability, magnesium is associated with a few limitations including rapid corrosion and evolution of hydrogen during the degradation in the biological environment. Several materials engineering strategies have been employed to address the limitation of magnesium. Developing composites by incorporating suitable reinforcements into Mg is such promising route to develop Mg based implants with tailored properties. The present review provides a snap shot of the developments reported in development of Mg based composite for degradable implant applications. Different phases used to incorporate into Mg and the influenced properties with the future scope and the challenges are presented.