US Patent 8101268 Bone substitute material

A method of fabricating a bone substitute material comprises the steps of providing a foam material (3) having an open cell structure, distorting the shape of the foam material (3) and holding the material in a distorted shape, coating the walls of the cells of the foam material with a ceramic slip (5), removing the foam material, and sintering the ceramic slip to form a bone substitute material that is approximately a positive image of the distorted foam material (3). In another method, a granular bone material is formed from a multiplicity of pieces of foam that are not distorted.