Bone adhesive materials: From bench to bedside

Biodegradable bone adhesives represent a highly sought-after type of biomaterial which would enable replace-ment of traditional metallic devices for fixation of bone. However, these biomaterials should fulfil an extremely large number of requirements. As a consequence, bone-adhesive biomaterials which meet all of these re-quirements are not yet commercially available. Therefore, this comprehensive review provides an extensive overview of the development of bone adhesives from a translational perspective. First, the definition, classifi-cation, and chemistry of various types of bone adhesives are highlighted to provide a detailed overview of this emerging class of biomaterials. In this review we particularly focused studies which describe the use of materials that are capable of gluing two pieces of bone together within a time frame of minutes to days. Second, this review critically reflects on i) the experimental conditions of commonly employed adhesion tests to assess bone adhesion and ii) the current state-of-the-art regarding their preclinical and clinical applicability.

Automated summary

Biodegradable bone adhesives are highly sought-after biomaterials that can replace traditional metallic devices for bone fixation. However, these biomaterials must meet numerous requirements, and commercially available bone-adhesive biomaterials that fulfill all of these requirements are currently not available. This comprehensive review provides an extensive overview of the development of bone adhesives from a translational perspective, highlighting the definition, classification, and chemistry of various types of bone adhesives. The review also focuses on materials capable of gluing two pieces of bone together within a time frame of minutes to days and critically reflects on commonly employed adhesion tests and the current state-of-the-art in their preclinical and clinical applicability.