A medical implant for cartilage and/or bone repair at an articulating surface of a joint is provided. The implant includes a contoured implant body and at least one extending post. The implant body has an articulating surface configured to face the articulating part of the joint and a bone contact surface configured to face the bone structure of a joint, where the articulating and bone contact surfaces face mutually opposite directions and the bone contact surface is provided with the extending post. A cartilage contact surface connects the articulating and the bone contact surfaces and is configured to contact the cartilage surrounding the implant body in a joint. The articulating surface has a layer that is formed of titanium nitride (TiN) as the wear-resistant material. The cartilage contact surface has a coating that is formed of a material having chondrointegration properties.

Biocompatible compositions, in particular for the preparation of a biodegradable coating for medical articles, include a biocompatible thickening polymer and a chitosan derivative comprising D-glucosamine units of the following formula (I):

##STR00001##

wherein X is an alditolic or aldonic polyol residue of the following formula (II):

##STR00002##

wherein: R is CH.sub.2 or CO; R1 is hydrogen, a monosaccharide moiety or an oligosaccharide moiety; R2 is OH or NHCOCH.sub.3.

The present invention also relates to uses of the disclosed compositions, to a kit of parts including a composition in powder form and to a method for the preparation of a biocompatible composition in gel form.

The biodegradable coating shows a good and long-lasting adhesion to the surface of a medical article and allows to improve both the coating operations and the effectiveness in preventing any biofilm formation on the medical article.

The present invention relates to formulations for administration to a joint fat pad of a subject, and to methods of treating joint pain, inflammation or disease. The disclosed formulations are intended for local administration to the joint fat pad to provide sustained release of a therapeutic agent to the joint cavity and surrounding tissues. The joint may be an arthritic joint, an injured joint or a surgically replaced joint. The therapeutic agent may be an analgesic agent, an anti-inflammatory agent or an immunosuppressive agent. A single administration of the formulation to the joint fat pad delivers a therapeutically effective amount of the therapeutic agent with reduced systemic exposure relative to a single systemic or a single intra-articular administration of a therapeutic dose of an identical therapeutic agent.

In the present disclosure, an artificial joint stem includes a base having an outer surface including a rough surface, and a coating film disposed on the rough surface of the base and containing a calcium phosphate-based material and an antimicrobial agent. The rough surface includes an exposed region exposed from the coating film.

A method and apparatus are provided for making a temporary hip joint prosthesis. The method includes horizontally positioning each half of a two-part mold having a respective impression of a front side and a backside of a hip joint prosthesis. The method includes level filling the selected impressions with a bone cement mixture. The method includes rotating one half of the two-part mold to align the front side and back side of the hip joint prosthesis. The method includes maintaining the two halves of the two-part mold in contact as portions of the bone cement mixture in each half adhere together and cures. The method includes removing a hip joint prosthesis from the two-part mold.

Provided herein are compositions and methods for treating a subject with damaged tissue, such as an injury associated with a tissue to tissue (e.g., a connective tissue-to-connective tissue or tissue to bone) interface. One aspect provides an adhesive film or adhesive layer, optionally comprising a biomaterial, tissue growth factors, including CTGF/CCN2, or cells.

The invention generally relates to cells and compositions comprising same for use in cell therapy, to methods of obtaining same, and to use of same in cell therapy. In one aspect, the invention provides a method for forming a cell composition from a tissue sample, the method comprising: providing a tissue sample comprising cells; contacting the sample with a polymer in binding conditions, said binding conditions being conditions that enable binding of cells in the sample to the polymer, so that said cells are bound to the polymer; culturing the cells bound to the polymer under conditions and for a time that allows the cell number to increase; providing conditions to induce a phase change of the polymer; thereby forming a cell composition from a tissue sample.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing a crosslinked gel of at least one polysaccharide or a salt thereof, comprising at least the steps consisting in: a) providing a solution formed from an aqueous medium comprising at least said polysaccharide(s) or a salt thereof in a non-crosslinked form, at least one difunctional or multifunctional epoxide crosslinking agent chosen from butanediol diglycidyl ether, diepoxyoctane, 1,2-bis(2,3-epoxypropyl)-2,3-ethylene, and mixtures thereof, and at least one phosphate salt; b) crosslinking the solution from step a) and, where appropriate; c) recovering said crosslinked gel formed.

An implant comprises a substrate and a coating on a surface of the substrate, and the coating comprises silicon nitride and has a thickness of from about 1 to about 15 micrometer. A method of providing the implant comprises coating a surface of the implant substrate with the coating comprising silicon nitride and having a thickness of from about 1 to about 15 micrometer by physical vapour deposition.

The present disclosure relates to methods of treating or preventing a biofilm-related infection and methods of preventing and treating biofilm formation on indwelling medical devices, implants, and non-medical surfaces comprising administering at least one soluble microbial protein that is encoded by an exopolysaccharide biosynthetic operon or functional gene cluster, wherein the protein comprises a glycosyl hydrolase domain. The present disclosure further provides particular soluble glycosyl hydrolases and compositions thereof.