Wear, aseptic loosening, dislocation, corrosion and prosthetic joint infection (PJI) are major factors leading to revision of THA. The effect of using ceramic components to address these issues was investigated to determine their behaviour and potential benefit.INTRODUCTION
METHODS
According to the Australian registry 2014, periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is the fourth important reason for revision of a primary total hip arthroplasty (THA). PJI is frequently caused by commensal strains of the skin such as Staphylococcus aureus or Staphylococcus epidermis. Deep infection is depending on many factors, such as implant surface chemical and physical behaviour, device design, host site, surgery and host response. Nevertheless, a lack of knowledge is seen concerning the specific effects of different surfaces on the biological response of different biomaterials. In addition, it is difficult to discriminate the material chemico-physical properties by the topological features, such as surface roughness. Indeed, it has been widely demonstrated that surface composition, electric charge, wettability and roughness of implant surfaces have a strong influence on their interactions with biological fluids and tissues. Therefore, also bearing surface properties can influence the incidence of PJI, just shown recently. To verify the capability of ceramic bearings to reduce bacteria biofilm adhesion by means of their surface chemico-physical properties.Introduction
Objectives
Third body wear caused by contaminated bearing environment with debris that may have been generated by a worn or fractured revised bearing coupling, but also originated by generation of metal/cement particles during the primary or revision surgery, may be a relevant issue for the implant life. To evaluate the wear behavior of a last generation alumina matrix ceramic composite (AMC) bearing in a worst case scenario consisting of highly contaminated test lubricant with alumina particles in a hip joint simulator study.Introduction
Objectives
Wettability of bearing couples has always been related to the tribological performance of implants, and it is understood to affect lubrication of surfaces. So far researchers fail to understand the real mechanisms governing the lubrication process of prostheses. Different models attempt to explain the phenomena, but more research is needed. To add more difficulties, some classical measuring techniques have provided inaccurate values of surface properties. For instance, wettability may seem a priori a simple technique capable of providing easy-to-read cost-effective information. However, ignoring surface preparation may lead to wrong values of wettability and mis-understanding of the results. The dependence of wettability of commercial bearing materials used in arthroplasty has been studied as a function of the cleaning procedure, showing the variability of the results, and providing a series of guidelines to understand and perform wettability measurements.INTRODUCTION
OBJECTIVES
