| abstract |
The invention is directed to a process for making a tissue repair implant having a porous sponge-like structure to repair bone, cartilage, or soft tissue defects by producing a connective tissue homogenate from one or more connective tissues, mixing the connective tissue homogenate with a carrier solution to produce a connective tissue carrier, optionally mixing one or more natural or synthetic bone fragments with said connective tissue carrier to produce a tissue repair mixture, freezing or freeze-drying the tissue repair mixture to produce a porous sponge-like structure and create a three-dimensional framework to entrap the natural or synthetic bone fragments, treating the frozen or freeze-dried porous sponge-like structure with one or more treatment solutions to produce a stabilized porous sponge-like structure A crudely fragmented connective tissue from one or more connective tissues is optionally mixed with the tissue repair mixture before freezing or freeze-drying. |