POMES: An Open-Source Software Tool to Generate Porous/Roughness on Surfaces

The long-term success of implants depends on rapid healing and safe integration with body. In the case of orthopaedic and dental implants it was found that geometry and surface topography are crucial for short and long-term success of the implant, due to its effects in osseointegration. Properties of implant surfaces have been studied in the last decade in a concentrated effort to improve osseointegration process and implant success. Several researchers have proved that roughness of implant surface is related to healing time and integration between the implants and the bone, but the parameters on the surface creation are not fully controllable with current processes. In this work, computational algorithms are proposed for implant surface design in order to control the parameters required for this application. As a result it is presented an open-source software tool, called POMES - Porous and Modifications for Engineering Surfaces - , to design porous/roughness on top of surfaces in any geometry. Additionally, an example model was fabricated using POMES and additive manufacturing. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.