Implant (medicine)

An implant (from Latin in -, in ' and plantar, plant ' ) is an artificial implanted in the body material to remain there permanently or at least for a longer period. It is frequently made based on medical, plastic and functional implants. In contrast to the implant or to an endoprosthesis exoprosthesis is mounted externally on the body.

Medical implants

You have the responsibility to support or replace body functions. Depending on the function they are also known as implanted prosthesis. Known representatives are for example:

  • An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD)
  • Pacemaker (HSM )
  • Stents and vascular grafts
  • Deep brain stimulation (brain pacemaker in Parkinson's disease)
  • Artificial Heart
  • Port catheter
  • Cochlear implant
  • Retinal implant ( visual prosthesis )
  • In dentistry, dental implants find as fastening anchors for artificial teeth, bridges or dentures application.
  • To form implants, which serve a custodian of a drug (eg contraceptives). These will be replaced by consumption.
  • Various forms of joint replacement
  • Used in trauma surgery materials for the surgical treatment of fractures (osteosynthesis )
  • In neurosurgery individual skull reconstructions from titanium are used as a bone substitute for skull defects after trepanning or resection.
  • Penile prosthesis
  • Sphincter prosthesis

Plastic implants

Plastic implants are used in plastic surgery, for example to replace damaged parts of the body or as an augmentation of existing parts of the body. The most common implants are breast implants for breast augmentation.

Functional implants

They are used, for example, the monitoring of animals or humans by RFID chips are implanted under the skin. A manufacturer is VeriChip.

Hip replacement Active ingredient Subdermal implant Biomaterial
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