Wright Medical Technology, Inc.

John Jeffrey Venarsky

James R Johnson

Jeffrey G Marx

Bradley R Heckendorf

A method for forming a ceramic article useful as a bone substitute and having an outer surface defining a shape having a bulk volume and having open, interconnecting openings extending throughout the volume and opening through the surface, includes, providing an organic open-pore structure, coating surface of pores of the structure with a ceramic slip, pyrolyzing the organic structure to leave a ceramic structure having struts defining a plurality of interconnecting interstices, and providing within the interstices a porous osteoconductive composition exposed to the interconnecting openings. In a preferred embodiment, the ceramic slip includes a strong, supportive ceramic material and a separate osteoconductive material.

Process for producing rigid reticulated articles

A process for producing a rigid reticulated article involves coating a reticulated substrate which has open, interconnected porosity with a first dispersion comprising a ceramic or metal powder to form a first coating thereon; drying the coated reticulated substrate; contacting the coated reticulated substrate with one or more additional dispersions in succession to form one or more additional coatings thereon; drying the additional coatings between the steps of contacting; heating the coated reticulated substrate to pyrolyze organic components; and sintering the coated reticulated substrate to form a reticulated article, wherein each dispersion has a viscosity less than that of all preceding dispersions. A rigid reticulated article includes inner, intermediate and outer sintered layers of material in which the inner and outer layers are of different composition and the intermediate layer is a composite of the inner and outer layers.

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Godfrey, IL, United States of America

John Jeffrey Venarsky