Implant wear and aseptic loosening

Abstract

Wear of total joint implants is multifactorial in nature. Even for identical materials and geometries, the interaction of those parameters can generate different numbers of particles as well as different particle sizes and shapes. These different wear-particle characteristics will directly influence the biological response to an implant and thereby its clinical success. The long-term success of a total joint replacement requires an optimized compromise among implant material, design, surgical procedure, and biological performance.

Developing alkaline titanate surfaces for medical applications

“…Their brittle nature can result in spalled particles in vivo. The production of these spalled particles may induce phagocytic pathways through macrophage activation and may eventually lead to aseptic loosening of the implant, although direct determination of the cause of this multifactorial aetiology is still fiercely debated within the literature [97][98][99].…”

Editorial: Biotribology and Biotribocorrosion Properties of Implantable Biomaterials

“…This is the case for example of the Total Knee Replacements (TKR) or Total Hip Replacements (THR) which represent one of the most investigated bio-tribological system due to their growing diffusion in all the world (Kurtz, et al, 2007;Learmonth et al, 2007). In TKR and THR wear phenomena play a key role, since one of the main failure reasons are dislocation due to debris particles entrapped in human tissues leading to metallosis and osteolysis conditions (Kaddick et al, 2009;Zivic et al, 2017). With the aim to improve the tribological design of such components, preclinical in-vitro wear tests by knee and hip simulators has become a standard procedure for achieving a performance assessment and for investigating experimentally the tribological phenomena acting on the contact surfaces during a simulated motion in a controlled lubricating environment (Abdel-Jaber et al, 2015).…”

Optimizing lateral homogeneity of ion-induced surface modifications of non-planar dielectric polyethylene components employing ion fluence simulations and optical measurements of the sp2-dependent reflectivity

“…Considering the amount of wear particles, a major step has been taken by using highly crosslinked polyethylene as inlay material in combination with a ceramic joint head [6][7][8]. Further progress could be possible with the application of diamond-like carbon (DLC); an amorphous modification with a significant portion of sp³ hybridized carbon atoms (at least 10%) showing high hardness, excellent biocompatibility and low surface roughness [9,10].…”