New inorganic materials for medicine

New inorganic materials (metals and their alloys, carbon materials, ceramics, glass, and glass-ceramics) that are used in one of the branches of medicine,viz., bone endoprosthetics and implantology, are considered. Attention is concentrated on calcium- and phosphoruscontaining glassy and glass-ceramic materials that exhibit bioactivity with respect to a living bone. The main statements of the modern theory of bioactivity of these materials are outlined; physicochemical aspects of this theory are considered in detail. Extensive possibilities for controlling the structures, medico-biological, physicochemical, and mechanical properties of bioactive glasses, glass-ceramics, ceramics, and composites based on them are demonstrated. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 2, pp. 246–253, February, 1997.