Background and objectives : Mandibular reconstruction after tumour ablative surgery is essential for returning QOL of oral cancer survivours. But bone reconstruction surgery puts a severe strain on the patient. To date, the author reported that titanium fibre mesh scaffold had favour biocompatibility and high bone formation ability that was enhanced by hydroxyapatite coating. In the present study, the author described the development of new mandibular reconstruction device with the titanium fibre mesh scaffold.

Methods : Mandibular reconstruction materials made of titanium fibre mesh scaffold were made with or without hydroxiapatite (HA) coating. HA coating was performed with molecular precursor method that the scaffold was soaked into the Ca and diphosphate solution and heated at 600° for 2 h after the soaking. For surgery, adult female Japanese white rabbits were used. A part of the mandibular bone was completely removed, and the defect was reconstructed by the titanium fibre mesh scaffold. The materials was fixed with titanium plate. Twenty-one weeks after surgery, the 5 coating and 5 non-coating animals were sacrificed and the reconstructed part was evaluated with computed tomographic (CT) and histological analysis. Mann–Whitney U-test was performed for statistical analysis.

Results : CT analysis revealed that the amount of new bone outside of the HA-coating titanium fibre scaffold was significantly higher than that of the untreated titanium fibre scaffold. Histological analysis revealed that the amount of new bone inside of the HA-coating titanium fibre scaffold was significantly higher than that of the untreated titanium fiber scaffold.

Conculusion : In hydroxyaatite coating titanium fibre mesh scaffold, newly formed bone were seen in and out of the materials, and the defect was completely restored with newly formed bone, suggesting that titanium fibre mesh was powerful materials for mandibular reconstruction device by hydroxyapatite coating.