The wear pattern in metal-on-metal hip prostheses

✍ Scribed by Anissian, H. Lucas ;Stark, Andr� ;Good, Victoria ;Dahlstrand, Henrik ;Clarke, Ian C.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 210 KB
• Volume: 58
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9304
• DOI: 10.1002/jbm.1068

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The accumulated data suggest that there is a strong correlation between polyethylene wear and osteolysis, which ultimately leads to prosthetic loosening. Second‐generation metal‐on‐metal prostheses have been introduced, with an eye toward resolving this wear‐induced osteolysis problem. The metal particles and ions are biologically active and can affect the cell homeostasis. Thus, defining the wear pattern and ratio of a given metal‐on‐metal prosthesis system is desirable. An early high‐wear or run‐in phase followed by a low‐wear phase or steady state has been suggested for metal‐on‐metal hip prostheses. The aim of this study was to define the wear pattern of metal‐on‐metal bearings. The prosthesis systems were tested in a joint simulator. An early accelerated wear phase transformed to a slower wear phase after 700,000 cycles. The run‐in and steady‐state wear rates for combined head and liner averaged 2.22 mm^3^/Mc and 1.0 mm^3^/ million cycles, respectively. The metal‐on‐metal prosthesis featured a biphasic wear trend with the wear ratio in run in being more than twofold higher than the steady‐state phase. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res (Appl Biomater) 58: 673–678, 2001