Total hip replacements are being used to relieve pain and restore the hip function of unhealthy hip joints. The various sizes and geometries of the modular femoral neck implants allow the surgeon to optimize the range of motion and patient’s leg length. However, some in vivo modular femoral neck retrievals have shown early fatigue and advanced wear-corrosion at the neck-stem taper interface, which can lead to adverse tissue reactions and failure of the implant.
The overall objective of this study was to simulate in vivo fatigue fracture, wear, and corrosion of modular necks at the neck-stem taper interface in a laboratory setting (in vitro) to better predict the failure mechanisms and implant limitations. More specifically, after optimizing the laboratory setup and the testing conditions, this study aimed to compare the effects of the modular neck material (Ti6Al4V and CoCrMo) and the implant assembly technique (hand and impact assembly) on fatigue life, wear-corrosion resistance, and distraction force. The PROFEMUR® Modular Neck System with CoCrMo femoral heads and Ti6Al4V stems was used in this study. The in vitro simulation was divided into two types of tests: fatigue tests (high compression load for a short cyclic loading duration) and corrosion tests (low compression load for a long cyclic loading duration). The neck-stem interface was submersed in a phosphate buffered saline solution, which was maintained at a temperature of 80 ºC to accelerate the corrosion reaction.
The simulation results showed that the Ti6Al4V necks were more vulnerable to fatigue fracture than CoCrMo necks. In addition, impact assembly of the components resulted in an increased implant fatigue life compared to hand assembly, but also increased the distraction force. The observed wear-corrosion damage was higher in fatigue tests than corrosion tests, suggesting that the level of mechanical load was a major factor influencing implant surface damage and fatigue fracture. On the other hand, corrosion tests showed that longer exposure resulted in more fluid accumulation in the stem pocket. This may lead to the formation of a corrosion cell with strongly acidic conditions in the stem pocket, as well as the potential for larger metal ion release. Overall, the in vitro simulation was successful in reproducing femoral modular neck fracture and wear-corrosion damage similar to retrieved in vivo specimens. Results may play a major role in the future development of total hip replacements and international standards for implant testing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/33386 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Aljenaei, Fahad |
| Contributors | Nganbe, Michel, Catelas, Isabelle |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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