Use of diamond-like coatings for treating medical appliances has great prospects. Due to the perfect adhesion, chemical stability and environmental safety of diamond-like films deposited through vacuum pulse sputtering, such coatings can be used for high-performance corrosion protection. This feature has been successfully tested on surgical instruments. As a result the service life of the instruments can be prolonged up to several times. Equally important is that diamond-like coatings are able to enhance the sliding ability of rubbing parts. Modern methods of eye microsurgery and spinal chord endoscopy involve the use of high-precision instruments with an expanding collet closing mechanisms. Instruments and tools manufactured especially for this purpose must penetrate smoothly and painlessly through the tissues being operated. Wedging of the collet closing mechanism in these tools can produce serious difficulties during operation and be fraught with adverse events. Application of diamond-like films by deposition technique provides good adhesion and helps to achieve the desired results. According to reviews from Medin-Ural diamond-like coatings produced by Special Technologies LLC have proven their high efficiency in this field of application.
Another application of DLC-coatings in medicine is a biologically-compatible protective coating for implants.
