Causes of Failure of Ceramic-on-Ceramic and Metal-on-Metal Hip Arthroplasties (original) (raw)
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Long-duration metal-on-metal total hip arthroplasties with low wear of the articulating surfaces
The Journal of Arthroplasty, 1996
The 20-year performance of metal-on-metal hip articulations has not been reported. Five McKee-Farrar total hip prostheses and one Sivash prosthesis were obtained at revision surgery after a mean implantation time of 21.3 years. A radiographic, histologic, implant, and wear analysis was performed on these total hip implants with cobalt-chrome metal-on-metal articulations. All cases were associated with femoral component loosening, but the bearing surfaces performed remarkably well. The worst case estimate of combined femoral and acetabular linear wear was 4.2 gm per year, about 25 times less than that typically seen with polyethylene. Metal particles and foreign-body inflammation were seen in all cases, but the volume of reactive tissue was small compared with what is generally seen at revision of hips with a polyethylene acetabular bearing. This may be due to a reduced particle burden or a decreased inflammatory reaction to particulate metal, or both. In addition to articular wear, other sources of metal particles included femoral neck impingement on the acetabular rim, stem burnishing, and corrosion. Prosthetic hip reconstructions can fail for many reasons, including suboptimal femoral stem and/or acetabular cup design and/or fixation. By today's standards, the McKee-Farrar and Sivash stem and acetabular component designs are suboptimal; however, after more than 20 years of use, the metal-on-metal bearing surfaces in these cases demonstrated low wear and do not appear to be the cause of failure. Recent advances in total hip arthroplasty, which include improved implant design, materials, manufacturing, and fixation, combined with a better understanding of the mechanisms of implant loosening and failure, suggest that the cobalt-chrome metal-on-metal bearing be reexamined as an alternative to polyethylene when exceptional durability is required.
Sequelae of large-head metal-on-metal hip arthroplasties
EFORT Open Reviews, 2016
Large-head metal-on-metal (MoM) bearings were re-popularised in the late 1990s with the introduction of modern hip resurfacing (HR), followed closely by large metal head total hip arthroplasty (THA). A worldwide increase in the use of MoM hip arthroplasty subsequently saw a sharp decline, due to serious complications. MoM was rapidly adopted in the early 2000s until medical device alerts were issued by government regulatory agencies and national and international organisations, leading to post-marketing surveillance and discontinuation of these implants. Guidelines for MoM hip implant follow-up differ considerably between regulatory authorities worldwide; this can in part be attributed to missing or conflicting evidence. The authors consider that the use of large-head MoM THA should be discontinued. MoM HR should be approached with caution and, when considered, should be used only in patients who meet all of the recommended selection criteria, which limits its indications considerab...
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®, 2015
Background Fretting and corrosion at head-neck junctions of total hip arthroplasties (THAs) have been associated with adverse local tissue reactions in patients with both metal-onpolyethylene (MoP) and metal-on-metal (MoM) prostheses. Femoral head size contributes to the severity of fretting and corrosion in large-diameter MoM THAs, but its impact on such damage in MoP THAs remains unknown. Questions/purposes (1) Is femoral head size associated with increased fretting or corrosion at the head-neck junction in MoP total hips? (2) Is duration of implantation associated with increased fretting or corrosion? Methods The severity of fretting/corrosion on surfaces of head tapers and stem trunnions was visually examined in 154 MoP THAs retrieved as part of 3282 revision surgeries performed at our institution between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2013. Fretting and corrosion damage were subjectively graded by two independent observers on a 1 to 4 scale, and their relations to head size, alloy combinations, taper/trunnion design, length of implantation (LOI), and location were investigated. Differences in scores never exceeded one grade, and this occurred in only 17% of examined implants. With the available implants, the study provided 88% power to detect differences of 0.5 in fretting or corrosion scores in these analyses. Results Fretting and corrosion of the tapers and the trunnions were not affected by head size (p = 0.247, p = 0.471, p = 0.837, and p = 0.868, respectively), although taper/trunnion design affected taper fretting (p = 0.005) and corrosion (p = 0.0031) and trunnion fretting (p = 0.0028). Head taper fretting (observed in 73% of heads) increased with LOI, but head taper corrosion (noted in 93% of heads) was not affected. Trunnion fretting (observed in 86% of stems) was more severe in mixed-alloy combinations and with increased LOI and was more severe proximally. Trunnion corrosion (noted in 72% of stems) was also location-dependent with greater corrosion distally. Conclusions Fretting and corrosion are regular occurrences in MoP THAs, but neither damage type was related to femoral head size. Conversely, taper design, LOI, and alloy combination affected the severity of both fretting and corrosion. Clinical Relevance Although it has been suggested that trunnion corrosion seen in MoP bearings is a function of larger diameter heads, our data suggest that larger femoral heads may be used for increased damage at the modular junction of MoP THAs.
Which Factors Determine the Wear Rate of Large-Diameter Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacements?
The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American), 2013
Background: Determining the relationship between clinical factors and engineering analysis of retrieved hip implants can help our understanding of the mechanism of device failure. This is particularly important for metal-on-metal hip arthroplasties because the most common cause of failure is unexplained. We sought to understand the variation in wear rates in a large series of retrieved metal-on-metal hip arthroplasty components.
Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials, 2005
We investigated articular bearing surfaces retrieved from three patients with ceramic-on-ceramic total hip arthroplasties using high-quality alumina. The duration of implantation was 3.5, 3.0, and 2.5 years, respectively. Dislocation of the hip joint after implantation did not occur in any patients. The retrieved prostheses were examined by stereomicroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In the main load-bearing area, no wear marks were seen in any sockets. However, in all three cases, stripe scars were observed at the rim of the alumina inlay under stereomicroscopy, despite the lack of indentation in the socket and the stem, which suggests impingement. Such scars were not observed on the load-bearing surface. Under SEM, the scars showed excessive wear, including material excavation, that has not been observed in conventional hip simulator experiments. These findings are similar to those of experiments in which a simulator was programmed to distract the femoral head from the socket. The present results suggest that the femoral head can separate from the socket without neck-socket impingement in vivo.
Modular junction may be more problematic than bearing wear in metal-on-metal total hip arthroplasty
HIP International, 2018
Introduction:In total hip arthroplasty (THA), local adverse reaction to metal debris (ARMD) may be caused by abnormal metal ion release from a metal-on-metal (MoM) bearing, or by wear and corrosion of the implant’s modular junction. The aim of this study was to compare ion levels and rate of ARMD between patients sharing the same MoM bearing but 1 group having monoblock stems versus another having modular stems.Materials and methods:Whole blood cobalt (Co) and chromium (Cr) ion concentrations, ARMD rate, revision rate, and function measured by UCLA and WOMAC scores were compared between groups.Results:ARMD rate was significantly higher in the modular group (46%) compared with the monoblock group (16%, p = 0.031). Revision for ARMD was performed at 52.8 ± 8.1 months in the modular group versus 98.2 ± 15.5 months after primary THA in the monoblock group. ARMD originated from wear and corrosion of the junction between stem and femoral head adapter sleeve in all monoblock cases, and the...
Larger Diameter Bearings Reduce Wear in Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants
Clinical Orthopaedics & Related Research, 2007
Metal-on-metal hip arthroplasty has the longest clinical history of all total arthroplasties. We asked whether large diameter femoral heads would result in less wear than those with small diameters. We also asked if there is a threshold diameter that ensures good wear behavior. We tested three batches of cast high-carbon cobalt-chromium-molybdenum hip implants (28 mm, 36 mm, and 54 mm diameters) in a hip simulator for 5 million cycles. We used bovine serum as lubricant and weighed the samples at regular intervals during testing. The 28-mm configuration had almost twice the wear of the 54-mm configuration, but we observed no difference between the 36-mm and the 54-mm configurations. The similarity in the wear performances of the larger configurations supports the presence of a threshold diameter that ensures good wear behavior.
Ceramic Bearings for Total Hip Arthroplasty Have High Survivorship at 10 Years
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®, 2012
Background Ceramic bearings were introduced to reduce wear and increase long-term survivorship of total hip arthroplasty. In a previous study comparing ceramic with metal-on-polyethylene at 5 to 8 years, we found higher survivorship and no osteolysis for the ceramic bearings. Questions/Purposes We asked whether ceramic bearings have equal or superior survivorship compared with that for metal-on-polyethylene at longer followup; we also determined survivorship of the implant systems, the presence or absence of radiographic osteolysis, and incidence of device squeaking.