Hydroxylapatite Otologic Implants

A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation (LMER) and Smith and Nephew Richards Inc. of Bartlett, TN, was initiated in March 1997. The original completion date for the Agreement was March 25, 1998. The purpose of this work is to develop and commercialize net shape forming methods for directly creating dense hydroxylapatite (HA) ceramic otologic implants. The project includes three tasks: (1) modification of existing gelcasting formulations to accommodate HA slurries; (2) demonstration of gelcasting to fabricate green HA ceramic components of a size and shape appropriate to otologic implants: and (3) sintering and evaluation of the HA components.