Patent ID: 9579206
Date: 2017-02-28
CPC Classifications: A61B,A61C,A61F,A61L

Claim:
1. A method of making a hard-tissue implant that, upon implantation into a hard tissue, provides immediate load transfer and prevents stress shielding, the hard-tissue implant comprising: (a) a bulk implant; (b) a face being an exterior surface of the bulk implant; (c) pillars for implantation into a hard tissue, the pillars being distributed on the face, across an area of at least 80 mm (d) slots to be occupied by the hard tissue, the slots being defined by the pillars and each slot having a width of 100 to 10,000 μm as measured along the shortest distance between adjacent pillars; wherein: the hard-tissue implant has a Young's modulus of elasticity of at least 10 GPa, has a ratio of (i) the sum of the volumes of the slots to (ii) the sum of the volumes of the pillars and the volumes of the slots of 0.40:1 to 0.90:1, does not comprise any part that is hollow, and does not comprise any non-pillar part extending to or beyond the distal ends of any of the pillars; the method comprising: (1) designing the hard-tissue implant such that the ratio of (i) the product of (a) the Young's modulus of the hard-tissue implant and (b) the sum of the volumes of the pillars to (ii) the product of (a) the Young's modulus of the hard tissue and (b) the sum of the volumes of the slots will be 0.80:1 to 3.8:1; and (2) making the hard-tissue implant.