The effect of hydrogen gas evolution of magnesium implant on the postimplantation mortality of rats
Noviana D, Paramitha D, Ulum MF, Hermawan H. · Journal of Orthopaedic Translation. 2016;5:9–15.
What kind of evidence is this?
Preclinical
Controlled rat femoral-implant safety experiment
Musculoskeletal and pain research
Other forms
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Methods at a glance
Twenty adult 12-week-old Sprague–Dawley rats receiving porous magnesium implantation or sham surgery.
Magnesium implant n=15; sham surgery n=5.
Eighteen days after implantation, with radiography on days 7 and 14 and blood measures on day 7.
A 0.24–0.26 g porous pure-magnesium tablet was implanted into a femoral bone defect and left to degrade without puncturing the gas cavity.
H₂ generated locally by magnesium corrosion in tissue — not Brown's gas and not inhaled/dissolved H₂ therapy.
Implant mass was about 1.7% of rat body weight and explicitly considered high; H₂ production rate, concentration and total volume were not quantified.
Not applicable — uncontrolled local generation from an implant; no mL/min measurement was reported.
No O₂ was co-administered.
Identical femoral surgery without magnesium implantation.
Outcomes and reported result
Survival, visible/radiographic gas-cavity spread, defect radiodensity and peripheral blood-cell indices.
A large gas cavity formed rapidly, spread from muscle into subcutaneous compartments and all magnesium-implant rats had died by day 18, whereas sham animals survived. Several blood indices changed, while RBC/WBC and other listed measures were not significant. Bone-defect radiodensity change in sham animals was not significant. The design shows harm from this high-burden implant condition, not harm from ordinary therapeutic H₂ exposure.
The complete free PMC article, methods, figures/table and disclosures were checked for implant burden, group sizes, missing H₂ quantification, mortality/gas distribution, positive and null findings, funding and conflicts.
A reported association, difference or mechanism is not automatically a clinical benefit. Null findings, outcome type, study design and precision all matter.
Cautions and applicability
Small unequal groups, exceptionally large rapidly corroding implant relative to rat mass, gas not chemically sampled/quantified, no gas evacuation and cause of death inferred rather than directly established. Indonesian/Canadian public/institutional support was reported; authors declared no conflicts.
Implant-material safety warning in rats; it does not evaluate inhaled H₂ or ordinary H₂-water exposure.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
No single-study GRADE certainty rating is assigned. Certainty is assessed by important outcome across a complete eligible evidence set, not by attaching a final grade to one source.
Sources and record status
PMID: 30035070 · DOI: 10.1016/j.jot.2015.08.003
Free full article in PubMed Central.
Complete PMC article and PubMed metadata; full-text extraction checked 9 August 2026.
2026-08-10