A common phenomenon occurring as a result of reverse total shoulder arthroplasties (RSA) is scapular notching. While bone loss of the scapula may be quantified using radiographic techniques,[1] the material loss on the humeral bearing has not been quantified. Depending on their functional biological activity, a high volume of polyethylene wear particles has been shown to be related to osteolysis, bone loss and ultimately, loosening of implants in other joints.[2] In order to understand the threshold for osteolysis in the shoulder, it is important to have a method that can accurately quantify the amount of material loss. The aim of this research was to (I) create and validate a method for quantifying material loss from a single humeral implant design which can then (II) be used to measure retrieved devices. Measurement of the surface topography of the implant was completed using coordinate measurement machine (CMM). The resulting point cloud was then imported into MATLAB and run through a custom algorithm to determine the volumetric wear of the humeral liner. Two never implanted humeral liners with an artificially damaged material loss were used for validation purposes. Each component was scanned three times, analyzed using the custom MATLAB program, and compared to gravimetric analysis (Figure 1). Following validation, an IRB-approved database was queried to identify 10 retrieved components of the same design which were then analyzed using the validated method.Introduction
Methods
