Our mission
Despite substantial advances in the design and manufacturing of permanent (metallic) implants, they do not outlast the patients. To illustrate, more than half of all hip replacements will fail before 15 years, mainly because of infection, fracture and loosening. The revision surgeries, as a solution, do not resolve the failure and often fail much earlier than primaries. They also incur a significant socioeconomic burden. To prevent these implant failures, Preimure (Prevention of implant failure) will develop different surface engineering strategies to facilitate implant bio-functionality by recruiting more host cells for new bone formation and inhibiting bacterial colonization on a variety of metallic implants.
Challenge
Implant-related infections (IRI) are a common challenge in both orthopaedics and traumotology. Adhesion of bacteria to the implant surface during or after surgery leads to biofilm formation within 12 hours after contact which makes the bacteria in this state 1000 times more resistant to antibiotics. Systematic antibiotic use is often not sufficient to eradicate the infection which results in the removal of the implant. Infection prevention strategies are often limited to hygiene measures during surgery and improving the overall health of the patient before the surgery. IRI is a burden on the patient by discomfort, revision surgeries, pain, excessive antibiotic use and a socioeconomic burden for society by increased healthcare costs to cur IRI.
Solution
Preimure is developing an ultra-tunable and bio-stable coating (an absorbable antimicrobial coating) to prevent IRI. The main benefit of this coating is release of antibiotics above the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) up to eight weeks. Higher antibiotic concentrations reduce the chance of pathogenic survival, antibiotic resistance and hence, the chance of IRI. Another benefit of this coating is the combinational delivery of antibiotics, which reduces antibiotic resistance development even more. Different orthopaedic and trauma implant applications are compatible with the coating. Treating a patient with our coating reduces the IRI prevalence, excessive antibiotic use, the discomfort of patients and healthcare costs that are associated with IRI curing strategies.
