Laboratory studies on the tribology of hard bearing hip prostheses: ceramic on ceramic and metal on metal.

Total hip replacements offer relief to a great many patients every year around the world. With an expected service life of around 25 years on most devices, and with younger and younger patients undergoing this surgery, it is of great importance to understand the mechanisms of their function. Tribological testing of both conventional and hard bearing joint combinations have been conducted in many centres throughout the world, and, after being initially abandoned owing to premature failures, hard bearing combinations have been revisited as viable options for joint replacements. Improved design, manufacturing procedures, and material compositions have led to improved performance over first-generation designs in both metal-on-metal and ceramic-on-ceramic hip prostheses. This paper offers a review of the work conducted in an attempt to highlight the most important factors affecting joint performance and tribology of hard bearing combinations. The tribological performance of these joints is superior to that of conventional metal- or ceramic-on-polymer designs.

The effect of 'running-in' on the tribology and surface morphology of metal-on-metal Birmingham hip resurfacing device in simulator studies.

It is well documented that hard bearing combinations show a running-in phenomenon in vitro and there is also some evidence of this from retrieval studies. In order to investigate this phenomenon, five Birmingham hip resurfacing devices were tested in a hip wear simulator. One of these (joint 1) was also tested in a friction simulator before, during, and after the wear test and surface analysis was conducted throughout portions of the testing. The wear showed the classical running in with the wear rate falling from 1.84 mm3 per 10(6) cycles for the first 10(6) cycles of testing to 0.24 mm3 per 10(6) cycles over the final 2 x 10(6) cycles of testing. The friction tests suggested boundary lubrication initially, but at 1 x 10(6) cycles a mixed lubrication regime was evident. By 2 x 10(6) cycles the classical Stribeck curve had formed, indicating a considerable contribution from the fluid film at higher viscosities. This continued to be evident at both 3 x 10(6) and 5 x 10(6) cycles. The surface study complements these findings.

Is the wear factor in total joint replacements dependent on the nominal contact stress in ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene contacts?

The exact dependence of wear factor on contact stress, load and apparent contact area is much disputed in the literature. This study attempts to solve this dispute. Pin-on-plate studies of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene against stainless steel were conducted under different combinations of load (33-250 N), nominal stress (0.56-12.73 MPa) and face diameter, as well as two tests where both stress and load were kept constant, while the diameter was changed. For these tests the centre of the pin face was bored out to create four different average pin diameters with similar face areas. Diameter and load were found to have no significant effect on the wear factor, while the wear factor decreased with increasing contact stress according to the relation K = 2 x 10(-6) sigma(-0.84).