2.1 History
The use of materials to repair the human body is an old idea dating back to ancient civilizations.
4000 years ago, ancient Egyptians used linen threads to close wounds, and in the Middle Ages, Europeans used sutures made from cat intestines. The Incas repaired skull fractures with gold plates and the ancient Mayans created artificial teeth from shells. The first iron teeth created by Europeans dating back to 200 AD were also identified. In the past, fabrics from life forms, manufactured materials (iron, gold, zinc or glass) and all kinds of natural materials (wood, glue and rubber) were used as biomaterials. However, the first attempts to use materials in the body were quite disappointing (Patel & Gohil, 2012).
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a number of physicians began to explore how the body reacted to implanted materials through observation in animals, and they reached the general consensus that the body did not adequately tolerate foreign materials. However, these ideas began to change after World War II, where some studies and observations of ex-combatants injured with some projected materials began to demonstrate that certain materials were well tolerated (Patel & Gohil, 2012).
Physicians quickly recognized the potential of using artificial materials to treat a variety of problems, which sparked the field of biomaterials as it is known today (Patel & Gohil, 2012).
Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the field of biomaterials evolved dramatically as new materials emerged and clinicians gained a better understanding of how the body responded to implants (Patel & Gohil, 2012).
The use of materials only became important in the 1860s with the arrival of an aseptic surgical technique developed by Dr. J. Lister. This qualitative leap was justified by the fact that previous surgical procedures, even those using biomaterials, were generally unsuccessful due, for example, to the onset of infection (Park & Lakes, 2007; Park & Bronzino, 2002; Wong & Bronzino, 2007).
Figure 1.
The oldest prosthesis known to date
3000 year old toe (950 BC) discovered on a mummified body of an Egyptian woman. The prosthesis is made largely of molded wood, its components held together with a leather thread.