title: Failure analysis of a total hip prosthesis implanted in active patient.
abstract: This work presents an analysis of a total hip prosthesis that failed in service prematurely within 5 years. The prosthesis presented a fractured stem that was extracted from a 46 year old male patient, 75 kg weight and 1.76 m height. In order to determine the origin of the failure, the femoral stem component was analyzed by means of visual inspection; optical microscope (OM), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS). The investigation showed that the crack had originated due to a high stress concentration on the anterolateral corner section of the stem. Any discontinuity or defect on the prosthesis surface in this location acted as preferential site to nucleate a crack which propagated by fatigue until the cross section was not able to sustain an eventual high load produced for the active patient.
authors.affiliation: Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, FIME, CIIDIT, Mexico. malhdz@gmail.com
authors.forename: M A L
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hernandez-Rodriguez
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ortega-Saenz
authors.forename: Geo R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Contreras-Hernandez
mesh_terms: D019644:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip; D006622:Hip Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008875:Middle Aged; D011475:Prosthesis Failure; D012916:Soccer