4.1 This practice is a guideline for short-term and long-term assessment of skeletal muscle and bone tissue responses to long-term implant materials. For testing of final finished medical devices, the test article for implantation shall be as for intended use, including packaging and sterilization. The tissue responses to the test article are compared to the skeletal muscle and/or bone tissue response(s) elicited by control materials. The controls consistently demonstrate known cellular reaction and wound healing.

1.1 This practice provides guidelines for biological assessment of tissue responses to nonabsorbable for medical device implants. It assesses the effects of the material that is implanted intramuscularly or intraosseously. The experimental protocol is not designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of the systemic toxicity, immune response, carcinogenicity, or mutagenicity of the material since other standards address these issues. It applies only to materials with projected applications in humans where the materials will reside in bone or skeletal muscle tissue in excess of 30 days. Applications in other organ systems or tissues may be inappropriate and are therefore excluded. Control materials are well recognized with a well-characterized long-term response and can include metals and any one of the metal alloys in Specification F67, F75, F90, F136, F138, or F562, high purity dense aluminum oxide as described in Specification F603, ultra high molecular weight polyethylene as stated in Specification F648, or USP polyethylene negative control.

1.2 The values stated in SI units, including units officially accepted for use with SI, are to be regarded as standard. No other systems of measurement are included in this standard.

1.3 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety, health, and environmental practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.

1.4 This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee.