Assessing the osseointegration potential of a strontium releasing nanostructured titanium oxide surface: A biomechanical study in the rabbit tibia plateau model

Abstract Objectives To investigate the impact of a Ti‐Sr‐O technology, applied to either a turned surface or an SLA surface, on the mechanical robustness of osseointegration, benchmarked against the SLActive surface. Material and Methods Ti discs (6.25‐mm‐diameter and 2‐mm‐thick) with three different surfaces were inserted on the proximal‐anterior part of the tibial plateau of adult Swedish loop rabbits: (I) turned surface modified with Ti‐Sr‐O (turned + Ti‐Sr‐O), (II) SLA surface modified with Ti‐Sr‐O (SLA + Ti‐Sr‐O), and (III) SLActive surface (SLActive). Following a healing period of 2 weeks and 4 weeks, the pull‐out (PO) force needed to detach the discs from the bone was assessed, as a surrogate of osseointegration. Results The SLActive surface exhibited statistically significant higher median PO forces, compared with the SLA + Ti‐Sr‐O surfaces at both 2‐ and 4 weeks post‐op ( p > .05). In this study, no single turned + Ti‐Sr‐O surface disk was integrated. Conclusions The tested Ti‐Sr‐O technology failed to enhance osseointegration; however, this finding may be related to the inappropriateness of the rabbit tibia plateau model for assessing third‐generation implant surface technologies, due to the limited diffusion and clearance at the disk‐bone interface.