Laser engravings as reason for mechanical failure of titanium-alloyed total hip stems

Abstract

Laser engravings need to be reduced to a minimum of necessary information, and should be placed at locations with minimum mechanical load. Biomechanical analyses are recommended to identify less loaded areas in implant components to avoid such implant failures.

A Method for Prediction of Femoral Component of Hip Prosthesis Durability due to Aseptic Loosening by Using Coffin/Manson Fatigue Model

“…We note that durability of femoral prostheses was studied in [ 23 ] on 95 patients with osteonecrosis, without developing a mathematical model. Mallory showed [ 24 ] that the femoral component geometry influences the durability of a prosthesis, while in [ 25 ] it was shown that even engravings may be the reason for mechanical failure of a prosthesis.…”

Impact of Laser Marking on Microstructure and Fatigue Life of Medical Grade Titanium

“…Ablative laser marking (laser engraving) has been used to provide traceability to hip-implants by the engraving of a serial number. This has been shown to be a preferred crack initiation site in titanium, presumably due to the stress concentration of what is effectively a notch [11,12]. In addition, dissolution of appreciable amounts of oxygen has been identified in the surface-near region after engraving, which potentially contributes to embrittlement.…”