A common cause of failure of implanted biomedical devices is infection. The attachment of bacteria to medical implants and in-dwelling catheters, and the proliferation of such bacteria, is a major cause of infection during or after the implantation process. Treating an implant with antibiotics has not proven very effective to combat infections, and has sometimes resulted in the development of resistant strains of bacteria.
Silver coatings are effective to combat infections; however, silver coatings tend to cause tissue irritation, largely due to excessively rapid release of the silver into the surrounding tissues.
An antimicrobial coating for a medical implant is needed which has hardness and low friction properties, and that will result in a slow, long-term release of antimicrobial metal atoms into the body in order to prevent infection.