Bioceramic materials in bone-implantable drug delivery systems: A review

Since long, the applications of bioceramics in bone-implantable drug delivery has revealed a significant impact due to some favorable merits, such as excellent biocompatibility, good bioactivity, nonimmunogenicity, osteoconductivity, bone resorbability and controllable porous microstructure. To treat different disorders and diseases, such as fracture, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, osteomyelitis, osseous cancer, etc., various drug releasing bone-implants composed of bioceramics have widely been investigated. During the last few decades, a large number of drugs (like antibiotics, anticancer agents, anti-inflammatory agents, proteins and peptides, growth factors, etc.) have been investigated for the controlled release by bone-implants made up of bioceramics. Amongst various bioceramics, calcium sulfate, calcium phosphates and bioactive glasses are being mostly used in the formula of drug releasing bone-implants. This review article describes about different bioceramic materials, which are being used to formulate drug releasing bone-implants to treat different bone diseases and disorders.