Emerging Nanotechnologies for Diagnostics, Drug Delivery and Medical Devices

2. Biocompatibility Issues of Implants

The success of any implantable device mainly depends upon its in vivo reliability, cytocompatibility, and durability throughout its proposed duration of action. Typically, tissue inflammation and immunological responses can arise within a short time span following implantation [69]. The possible inflammation responses caused by tissue injuries following device implantation is due to natural immunological responses. A series of wound healing mechanisms comes into play after tissue injury resulting from device implantation [70,71]. Fig. 11.10 shows the sequence of events from an immune response against implant leads to the formation of fibrous capsules around the implantable system. The material properties ...