Aims

Elective surgery has been severely curtailed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is little evidence to guide surgeons in assessing what processes should be put in place to restart elective surgery safely in a time of endemic COVID-19 in the community.

Squeaking in ceramic on ceramic bearing total hip arthroplasty is well documented but its aetiology is poorly understood. In this study we have undertaken an acoustic analysis of the squeaking sound recorded from 31 ceramic on ceramic bearing hips. The frequencies of these sounds were compared with in vitro acoustic analysis of the component parts of the total hip implant. Analysis of the sounds produced by squeaking hip replacements and comparison of the frequencies of these sounds with the natural frequency of the component parts of the hip replacements indicates that the squeaking sound is due to a friction driven forced vibration resulting in resonance of one or both of the metal components of the implant. Finite element analysis of edge loading of the prostheses shows that there is a stiffness incompatibility between the acetabular shell and the liner.

The shell tends to deform, uncoupling the shell-liner taper system. As a result the liner tends to tilt out of the acetabular shell and slide against the acetabular shell adjacent to the applied load. The amount of sliding varied from 4–40μm. In vitro acoustic and finite element analysis of the component parts of a total hip replacement compared with in vivo acoustic analysis of squeaking hips indicate that either the acetabular shell or the femoral stem can act as an “oscillator’ in a forced vibration system and thus emit a squeak.

Introduction: Squeaking has long been recognized as a complication in hip arthroplasty. It was first reported in the Judet acrylic hemiarthroplasty.¹ It was the squeak of a Judet prosthesis that led John Charnley to investigate friction and lubrication of normal and artificial joints which ultimately led to the concept of low friction arthroplasty. Ceramic on ceramic bearings were pioneered by Boutin in France during the 1970’s, but experienced unacceptably high fracture rates. Charnley demonstrated in vitro squeaking when he tested one of Boutin’s ceramic-on-ceramic bearings in his pendulum friction comparator.² Squeaking has also been reported in other hard on hard bearings, and can also occur after polyethylene bearing surface failure resulting in articulation between metal on metal or ceramic on metal surfaces.^3–6 Recently, squeaking has been increasingly reported in modern ceramic-on-ceramic bearings in hip arthroplasty. However, although well-documented, the aetiology of squeaking in ceramic on ceramic bearings is still poorly understood. The incidence ranges from under 1% to 10%.^7–10 It has been reported in mismatched ceramic couples,11and after ceramic liner fracture.^12,13 An increased risk of squeaking has been demonstrated with acetabular component malposition, as well as in younger, heavier and taller patients.⁹ However, it may also occur in properly matched ceramic bearings with ideal acetabular component position and in the absence of neck to rim impingement.^7–9 In rare cases, the squeak is not tolerated by the patient and has prompted a revision.

Under ideal conditions hard-on-hard bearings are assumed to be operating under conditions of fluid film lubrication with very low friction.^14,15 However, if fluid film lubrication breaks down leading to dry sliding contact there will be a dramatic increase in friction. If this increased friction provides more energy to the system than it can dissipate, instabilities may develop in the form of friction induced vibrations and sound radiation¹⁶. Friction induced vibrations are a special case of forced vibration, where the frequency of the resulting vibration is determined by the natural frequency of the component parts. Running a moistened finger around the rim of a wine glass is an example of this. [Appendix].

The hypothesis of this study is that the squeaking sound that occurs in ceramic on ceramic hip replacement is the result of a forced vibration. This forced vibration can be broken down into a driving force and a resultant dynamic response¹⁷. The driving force is a frictional driving force and occurs when there is a loss of fluid film lubrication resulting in a high friction force^14,15,18. The dynamic response is a vibration of a part of the device (the oscillator) at a frequency that is influenced by the natural frequency of the part¹⁶. By analyzing the frequencies of the sound produced by squeaking hip replacements and comparing them to the natural frequency of the component parts of a hip replacement this study aims to determine which part produces the sound.

Materials and methods: In vitro determination of the natural frequencies of implant components Modal analysis has suggested that resonance of the ceramic components would occur only at frequencies above the human audible range and that resonance of the metal parts would occur at frequencies within the human audible range. Furthermore, that resonance of the combined ceramic insert and titanium shell would not be within the human audible range. To test this hypothesis we performed a simple acoustic analysis. The natural frequency of hip replacement components was determined experimentally using an impulse-excitation method (Grindo-sonic). Components were placed on a soft foam mat in a quiet environment and struck with a wooden mallet. The sound emitted from the component was recorded on a personal computer with an external microphone with a frequency response which ranges from 50Hz to 18,000Hz (Beyerdynamic MCE87, Heilbronn, Ger-many). The computer has an integrated sound card with a frequency response from 20Hz to 24kHz (SoundMAX integrated digital audio chip, Analogue Devices Inc, Norwood, M.A.) and we used a codec with a frequency response from 20Hz to 20kHz (Audio Codec ’97, Intel, Santa Clara, CA). Sound files were captured as 16 bit mono files at a sample rate of 48000Hz using acoustic analysis software (Adobe Audition 1.5, Adobe Systems Incorporated, San Jose, California, USA). We performed fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the sound using FFT size 1024 with a Blackmann-Harris window to detect the frequency components of the emitted sound. (Fast Fourier transform is an accepted and efficient algorithm which enables construction of a frequency spectrum of digitized sound).

We tested the following components: modular ceramic/titanium acetabular components, which included testing the titanium shell and the respective ceramic inserts both assembled according to the manufacturer’s instructions and unassembled; titanium femoral stems and ceramic femoral heads both assembled and unassembled. A range of sizes of each component was tested according to availability from our retrieval collection.

In vivo acoustic analysis: Sound recordings were collected from 31 patients. Nineteen recordings were made at our institution: 16 of these were video and audio recordings and 3 were audio only recordings. Video recording was with a digital video camera recorder (Sony DCR-DVD101E Sony Electronics, San Diego, CA, USA) with the same external microphone used in the in vitro analysis. For 3 patients who could not reproduce the sound in the office we lent them a digital sound recorder for them to take home and record the sound when it occurred (Sony ICD-MX20, Sony Electronics, San Diego, CA, USA). This device has a In vivo acoustic frequency range from 60Hz to 13,500Hz. The remainder of the recordings were video and audio recordings made by surgeons at three other institutions on digital video camera recorders.

Sound files were captured and analyzed by the same method used in the in vitro analysis. Each recording was previewed in the spectral view mode which allows easy visual identification of the squeak in the sound recording. In addition all sound recordings were played, listening for the squeak. Once a squeak was identified a fast Fourier transform (FFT) was performed. We used FFT size 1024 with a Blackmann-Harris window which allowed us to easily pick out the major frequency components. All prominent frequency components were recorded at the beginning of the squeak and at several time points during the squeak if there was any change. A range was recorded for the fundamental frequency component. We were able to determine the frequency range of the recording device used by observing the frequency range of the background noise on the recording. We found that if a squeak was audible on the recording we had no difficulty determining its frequency regardless of the quality of the device used to make the recording or the amount of background noise.

The mean age of the patients was 54 years (23 to 79 years), mean height was 171cm (152 to 186cm) and mean weight was 79kg (52 to 111kg). There were 17 female and 14 male patients. There were nineteen ABGII stem and ABGII cup combinations, 10 accolade stem and trident cup, 1 Exeter stem and trident cup and 1 Osteonics Securfit stem with an Osteonics cup. Ethics committee approval was obtained for this project from our institution and from the referring institutions and informed consent was gained from the patients.

Finite element analysis of edge loading: Edge-loading wear which may provide a mechanism for failure of fluid film lubrication and may therefore play a role in squeaking. To evaluate edge loading further we conducted finite-element analysis (FEA).⁹ Computed tomography (CT) scans of an intact pelvis were obtained from visual human data set (VHD, NLM, Bethesda, Maryland). Slices were taken at 1mm thick with no inter-slice distance through the entire pelvis. The CT files were then read into a contour extraction program and saved into an IGES file format which was imported into PATRAN (MSC Software, Los Angeles, CA) to develop the pelvic geometry. The pelvis was meshed with 10 noded modified tetrahedral elements. The model was reconstructed with a 54mm titanium alloy generic acetabular shell and a 28mm alumina ceramic liner. The acetabular shell and ceramic liner were meshed using 8 noded hexahedral elements. The shell-liner modular taper junction incorporated an 18° angle. The implant contact conditions (Lagrangian multiplier) allowed the liner and shell to slide with a friction coefficient of 0.9. Tied contact conditions were applied between the generic acetabular shell and the bone representing bone ongrowth. Bone material properties were extracted from the CT files by taking the Hounsfield value and the coordinates and mapping to the element in the model allowing us to calculate the Young’s modulus for each element ¹⁹. Material properties for the shell and liner were based on published values²⁰ for titanium alloy and alumina ceramic

Introduction: Computer assisted knee arthroplasty (CAKA) has been shown in a number of studies to result in better post-operative alignment of prostheses. However good prosthetic alignment is only one part of total knee arthroplasty surgery and outcome is likely to depend on other factors such as soft tissue balancing. Our study aimed to compare the functional outcome following knee arthroplasty using CAKA or conventional instrumentation, and to determine whether the theoretical advantage of improved prosthesis alignment with CAKA resulted in improved functional outcome.

Materials and Methods: Data on 299 patients have been recorded to date. 139 patients have a minimum one year follow up. No patients were lost to follow up All patients were operated on by a single surgeon at a dedicated arthroplasty centre and were allocated to one of two groups: Computer assisted navigation using a robot assisted technique (PiGalilieo, Plus Orthopaedics, Rotkreuz, Switzerland), or using conventional instrumentation. In both groups the prosthesis used was the TC-Plus Self-aligning bearing (Plus Orthopaedics). Functional outcome was measured using the Oxford Knee Score (OKS). There was no statistical difference in pre-operative OKS and demographic data between the two groups

A power analysis was performed with alpha of 0.05 and power of 80%. In order to detect a difference of 4 points in the OKS, 126 patients were required. This number was exceeded in our study at one year.

Results: The mean OKS at one year follow up was 24.9 (range 12–54, standard deviation (s.d) 9.8) for the CAKA group and 25.3 (range 12– 49, s.d. 9.7) for the control group. There was no significant difference in functional outcome at one year between the two groups (p = 0.41). At two years follow up the mean OKS was 25.39 (range 13–53, s.d. 10.3) for the CAKA group and 24.14 (range 12– 43, s.d. 9.1) for the control group (p = 0.33). The results for the two year follow up group should be treated with caution as further patient numbers are awaited to obtain adequate power.

Conclusion: Although several studies show that use of CAKA results in improved prosthesis alignment, our study indicates that CAKA does not result in improved functional outcome as assessed by the patient at short term follow up. Improved prosthesis alignment is thought to result in improved long term outcome, however long-term studies are necessary to show whether the known advantages of CAKA in improved prosthesis alignment results in improved patient satisfaction and increased implant survival in order to justify the increased costs associated with CAKA.