Wear Behaviour and Wear Debris Characterization of UHMWPE on Alumina Ceramic, Stainless Steel, CoCrMo and Ti6Al4V Hip Prostheses in a Hip Joint Simulator

Abstract

Ultra-high molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) has been used in total hip replacement for the last three decades. Despite the advancements in prosthesis design, the wear of UHMWPE remains a serious clinical problem; the release of wear debris may induce osteolysis and implant loosening. Understanding of wear behavior and wear debris morphology of the polyethylene is essential to improve the reliability of hip joint implants. The investigation in this paper carried out wear simulation tests of UHMWPE on Al2O3, 316L stainless steel, CoCrMo alloy and Ti6Al4V alloy, respectively. The lubrication of plasma solution and bovine serum solution was presented in wear tests. The effect of motion and loading on the wear behavior and wear debris morphology, and the influence of femoral head material and assembly style were studied in order to obtain a better understanding of the morphology of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene wear particles. It is shown that the wear of UHMWPE acetabular cups against metal femoral heads was significantly higher than that against ceramic heads. The presence of protein in lubricant increases the wear of UHMWPE acetabular cups on Al2O3 heads. The wear rates of UHMWPE in multi-directional motion are approximately 2.5 times of those in uni-directional motion. The size distribution range of the UHMWPE debris particles for all head materials varies from submicron particles up to several hundreds micron. The size distribution range of wear debris particles is not directly related to wear resistance of UHMWPE, but significantly influenced by wear mechanisms. The UHMWPE debris particles produced in hip wear simulation tests are classified as round debris, flake-like debris and stick debris, which are closely related to the primary mechanisms of abrasive wear, adhesive wear and fatigue wear.

Wear Debris Characterization and Corresponding Biological Response: Artificial Hip and Knee Joints

“…Numerous studies and new findings are available to discuss [23,108,120,121,131–155] the reaction between the periprosthetic cells and prosthetic wear particles.…”

The evolution of polymer wear debris from total disc arthroplasty

“…From the size distributions shown in Table 1, the UHMWPE debris from the spinal simulator was somewhat in agreement with that of other TJRs [9,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. However it is difficult to make direct comparisons as test, sample preparation and assessment methodologies and equipment vary between research groups [8].…”

“…Mobile bearings [9] Knee joint simulator Elongated, fibril like, and spherical 0.2-0.8 μm AFM, SEM Revision surgery of THRs [15] Periprosthetic tissues Cylindrical, slice and spherical 0.1-10 μm and N10 μm SEM, IR, EDX/EDS Mobile bearing [16] Hip joint simulator Round, flake, stick, and twig Frequently occurs within range of 1-30 μm, but overall size range is 0. filters and prepared for SEM and imaged in the same way as the in vitro implant samples outlined above.…”

Exposure effects of endotoxin-free titanium-based wear particles to human osteoblasts

“…Most of the published papers, however, report physicochemical properties and biological effects associated with cobalt-chromium, polyethylene (Afolaranmi et al, 2012;Hongtao et al, 2011;Horev-Azaria et al, 2011;Kwon et al, 2009;Papageorgiou et al, 2008;Pourzal et al, 2011;Sansone et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2010), and commercially available pure titanium-based wear particles, mainly regarding immune-system cells (macrophages) (Haleem-Smith et al, 2012;Lee et al, 2012;Mostardi et al, 2010;Soto-Alvaredo et al, 2014;Wu et al, 2008), wherein commercial particles are commonly used to Fig. 6.…”

“…The specific physicochemical characteristics of the metallic wear particles, e. g., crystallinity, size, morphology, and chemical composition, play an important role in determining their biological effects (Konttinen and Pajarinen, 2013;Li et al, 2014). For retrieved or simulated wear particles, the current literature is primarily focused on two popular orthopedic implant materials: cobalt-chromium alloys (Co-Cr) and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) (Afolaranmi et al, 2012;Hongtao et al, 2011;Horev-Azaria et al, 2011;Kwon et al, 2009;Papageorgiou et al, 2008;Pourzal et al, 2011;Sansone et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2010). In contrast, rather than using retrieved or simulated wear particles, most studies of Ti-based implant materials rely on model cp-Ti particles with controlled size and morphology and examine their effects on immune-system cells (macrophages and/or monocytes), connective-tissue cells (fibroblasts), or mesenchymal stem cells (Haleem-Smith et al, 2012;Lee et al, 2012;Mostardi et al, 2010;Soto-Alvaredo et al, 2014;Wu et al, 2008).…”