Reduction of wear in total hip replacement prostheses by amorphous diamond coatings.
Wear-debris-induced periprosthetic bone loss and aseptic loosening is regarded as the main long-term problem of total hip replacements (THRs). In this study the amount of wear debris from articulating surfaces of THRs was reduced so as to be close to negligible by the use of high-quality amorphous diamond (AD) coatings deposited by pulsed plasma arc techniques. The wear rates determined in a commercial hip simulator for 15 million walking cycles (corresponding to about 15 years of clinical use) in serum lubrication were even 1,000,000 times lower than the clinical values for conventional THRs (polyethylene-metal or metal-metal pairs). Elimination of wear debris and good biomechanical performance should provide a substantial improvement of the clinical longevity of the THRs.
Lappalainen
Reijo
R
Department of Applied Physics, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland. Reijo.Lappalainen@Uku.Fi
Selenius
Mikko
M
Anttila
Asko
A
Konttinen
Yrjö T
YT
Santavirta
Seppo S
SS
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D018130:Diamond; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006622:Hip Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008422:Materials Testing; D011475:Prosthesis Failure; D013499:Surface Properties
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D018130:Diamond