Long‐term wear of ceramic matrix composite materials for hip prostheses under severe swing phase microseparation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term wear performance of alumina matrix composite (AMC) heads against alumina matrix composite inserts and alumina matrix composite heads against alumina (Al) inserts with the use of a hip-joint simulator incorporating severe swing phase joint microseparation. The wear of AMC on Al produced an average wear rate of 0.61 mm3/million cycles over the 5-million-cycle test duration. The wear of AMC on AMC produced an average wear rate of 0.16 mm3/million cycles over the 5-million-cycle test duration. Both the AMC on alumina and AMC on AMC produced significantly lower wear than previously tested HIPed alumina, where an average wear rate of 1.84 mm3/million cycles was reported over 5 million cycles. The wear mechanisms and wear debris of AMC on AMC and AMC on Al were similar to those observed in previous alumina retrieval studies with stripe wear caused by intragranular fracture and wear debris consisting of predominantly uniform 10-20-nm-sized particles and a few irregular particles up to 3 microm in size.

THA With Delta Ceramic on Ceramic: Results of a Multicenter Investigational Device Exemption Trial

“…The smaller grain size in the AMC material may contribute to this difference. This may lead to lesser disruption of the fluid film layer and lessen the risk of squeaking [37,46].…”

High Incidence of Squeaking in THAs with Alumina Ceramic-on-ceramic Bearings

“…Another possible explanation could be the increased joint laxity with a shorter neck length. This may increase the amount of microseparation [2,19,20] and thus be a precursor of the squeaking sound. For instance, increased microseparation makes squeaking as a result of the stickand-slip mechanism more likely [21].…”

Evaluation of Two Total Hip Bearing Materials for Resistance to Wear Using a Hip Simulator

“…It has been suggested that the nature of the femoral head might affect the wear of the polyethylene so a change to ceramic heads [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] was tested and has been instituted in many marketed devices. The use of ceramic-on-ceramic, in which both component materials are replaced by ceramic has also been tested and utilized in surgery [25][26][27][28] for several years. Metal-on-metal articulations initially had been used in the 1960s and 1970s [29,30] and have recently become attractive again as a possible solution to wear problems [22,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38].…”