The Surgical Correction of Scoliosis with Shape-Memory Metal

Because of its unique properties, shape memory metal (NiTi) can be put to excellent use in a device for the surgical correction of scoliosis [4, 37, 38, 52-54, 59]. Before such a device may be applied clinically (after being developed), it should meet two important criteria: biocompatibility and biofunctionality [11, 66]. Biocompatibility relates to the ability of the device to remain biologically nontoxic during the implantation period and biofunctionality refers to the ability of the device to perform the purpose for which it is designed. In this chapter both aspects of a new scoliosis correction system, based on shape memory metal are discussed [53,59].