Connecting bones with silk screws

The latest study of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Tufts University (USA), allows the use of silk in surgery to connect broken bones, instead of metal screws like before.

Silk is about to be used in fracture surgery - (Photo: Shutterstock)

The most common way to treat fractures is to connect two broken bones with metal screws. However, after a period of use, when the bone is ready, surgery is required to remove metal screws from the body.

Now silk is chosen to make screws that connect two broken ends because they achieve the same hardness as metal, but are more flexible, are easily receptive to the body and decompose after completing the task.

In particular, it is possible to mix antibiotics and some pharmaceuticals into silk screws to treat patients without injecting or taking drugs.

Scientists at the medical center have built 28 types of silk screws and experimental treatments for mice in the lab.

According to Gizmag magazine, after a successful test on mice, scientists planned to continue experimenting with larger animals.