title: Surface characterization and debris analysis of ceramic pairings after ten million cycles on a hip joint simulator.
abstract: This study was aimed at characterizing the ceramic wear particles produced during tests on a hip joint wear simulator of up to 10 million cycles. Alumina and alumina-zirconia composites were studied as commercial or potential hip joint products respectively. No ceramic particles could be observed, even after a careful isolation procedure. This confirms the low wear rate found for these materials in previous works (of the order of tenths of milligrams per million cycles). Surface characterization was conducted by means of scanning electron microscopy. It confirms the low wear regime of ceramic pairings and allows ceramic wear debris morphology to be defined. The effect of microstructure on surface wear is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Tecnologia Medica, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Affatato
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chevalier
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ruggeri
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Toni
mesh_terms: D000537:Aluminum Oxide; D002516:Ceramics; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D006622:Hip Prosthesis; D008422:Materials Testing; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D013499:Surface Properties; D015040:Zirconium
chemical_list: D015040:Zirconium; D000537:Aluminum Oxide; C028541:zirconium oxide