Necrosis of the femoral head is a relatively common medical condition that radically
decrease the quality of life for the patient. Left untreated it could lead to destruction
of the hip joint. A common treatment is using bone autografts, also called bone chips.
However, in the last decades synthetic bone grafts have become a very interesting
alternative. This thesis had two aims; to evaulate how porous hydroxyapatite grafts
with varied pore size could be produced by different size of the porogen and to
create two-phase cements which would form pores in situ by using a dissolvable
phase of calcium sulfate hemihydrate. The phase composition, morphology, porosity
and pore size distribution were characterized with x-ray diffraction, scanning electron
microscopy and micro-computed tomography. It was found that hydroxyapatite
granules could be produced and it was possible to vary their pore size to some extent
by changing the size of the porogen. At physiological temperature, pores were formed
in the two-phase cements from one week and onwards.