Varanasi: Scientists at the metallurgical engineering department of Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU) have succeeded in making nickel-free surgical grade stainless steel that is cheaper and much safer than stainless steel containing titanium, cobalt-chromium and nickel used in organ transplantation in the human body.
The new metal is also lighter in weight and double in strength.
According to them, titanium, cobalt-chromium and nickel-based surgical grade stainless steel metals such as (316L) are currently being used in surgical treatment of broken bones.
It is extremely expensive and many problems are also associated with it.
Stainless steel (316L) is a nickel-based metal which is cheap but the nickel element present in it causes problems like allergies, cancer, inflammation, discomfort, changes in the skin of the implant area in human skin.
Principal investigator and associate professor at the department, Dr.
Girija Shankar Mahobia said, “The common side effects of nickel are fatigue, swelling and skin allergy.
In some circumstances, there may also be a risk of developing lung, heart and kidney disease.
Nickel also starts coming out along with various elements.
Its dissolving capacity can be as high as 20 milligrams per kilogram, which is very dangerous.
Keeping all these things in mind, it became necessary to invent such cheap and effective metal in which nickel is negligible and it does not have any side effects in the body.” He further informed TOI that a patent had been filed for this in April 2020.
“The new metal does not stick to magnets.
Its strength is twice that of the metal currently in use, which will reduce the weight of the equipment made in it by half.
Due to its adaptability to the body, it can also be used to make heart related devices like stents, pacemakers, valves.
The new metal has absolutely no impurities, due to which its anti-fatigue properties are very good,” he added.
According to the weight of the human on the metal implanted inside the human body, there is an additional load on different organs which is three to four times more.
A normal and healthy human walks 7 to 10 kilometres per day and walks an average of one to two lakh steps every year.
Accordingly, the extra load is applied to the implanted metal forever and the usefulness of the protection anti-fatigue property of the metal is greatly increased.
As the new metal is nickel-free, it will also be Rs 100 per kg cheaper.
Dr Mahobia said that in 2015, taking inspiration from Prof.
Vakil Singh, an expert in mechanical-metallurgy, he submitted a project to the ministry of steel to make a nickel-free metal.
Due to being interdisciplinary and social welfare, it was given the green signal in January 2016.
The ministry provided a fund of Rs 2.84 crore for three years and ‘Corrosion Fatigue Research Lab’ was set up in the department.
The project team involved experts from IIT-BHU, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, National Center for Cytology, Puna, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology Trivandrum, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited-Hyderabad and Jindal Stainless Limited-Hisar.
Dr.
Mahobia and Dr.
OP Sinha designed the chemical composition of the new metal and got it produced at Mishr Dhatu Nigam Limited, Hyderabad.
According to Dr.
Mahobia, nitrogen and manganese were added to the new metal by removing nickel.
Also, other components such as chromium and molybdenum are mixed in a favourable ratio.
Due to this, the mechanical properties and anti-corrosion properties of the metal are higher than those of the currently used stainless steel.
Prof.
Vakil Singh contributed as an advisor to the entire project.
Chandrashekhar Kumar PhD research student has studied the ‘corrosion fatigue’ and anti-corrosion properties in detail according to all international parameters.
Dr.
Sanjeev Mahto of the School of Biomedical Engineering, IIT-BHU investigated the metal-adhesion and survival of bone cells.
Prof.
Mohan R.
Wani, senior scientist, studied the metal-adherence and survival of stem cells and found that the nickel-free metal is body-friendly.
The effect this metal can have on cells and blood inside the body has been tested in a Trivandrum-based lab to international standards on various animals such as rats, rabbits and pigs.
In all the tests, the new metal was found to be compatible with the body.
No side effects were found on any animals.
Prof.
Amit Rastogi of the Institute of Medical Sciences, BHU, conducted detailed testing of the new metal on rabbits and found that the new metal is absolutely safe.
Dr.
N Shanthi Srinivasan and Dr.
Kaushik Chattopadhyay have been instrumental in understanding the mechanical behavior of this metal.
“For use of any new metal in the body, permission has to be taken from CDSCO, government of India, similar to what we are currently seeing on the corona vaccine, its usefulness will have to be proved on human trials at different levels.
An appeal will be made to the ministries of steel and health to take necessary steps to make use of the new metal for the public.
Various steel makers and implant device manufacturing industries have also shown their interest,” said IIT-BHU director Prof.
Pramod Kumar Jain.
IIT-BHU experts produce nickel-free steel class surgery
