Surface treatment of metallic biomaterials in contact with blood to enhance hemocompatibility

A variety of material classes are used in biomedical applications: metals, ceramics, polymers, and composite (combination of some or all materials mentioned above). Those materials also can be founded in nature (natural materials) or can be chemically produced (synthetic materials). The criteria for selection from these classes will depend on the specific biomedical application, the characteristics of the native tissue to repair or replace, and the desired overall device function. In this chapter, a general approach about metals and their surface modification, its use as biomaterial and its interaction with body fluids and more specifically with blood will be discussed. We will end with an introduction to recent work on composite metal/polymer biomaterials used for tissue reconstruction and their hemodynamic properties. The chapter is written from a material-centric vantage point in a biomedical device and blood-material interactions context.