|
Wear
and debris generation of Ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene in total artificial
joints |
| Contract
number |
|
BRE2-CT94-1000 |
Proposal
number |
|
BE-7928 |
| Start
date |
|
01-Aug-94 |
Duration |
|
3 years |
| RTD
programme |
|
Brite-EuRam |
| Coordinator |
|
Professor J Fisher |
|
Organisation |
|
University of Leeds |
|
Department |
|
Department of Mechanical
Engineering |
| Country |
|
UK |
Postcode |
|
LS2 9JT |
| Telephone |
|
44 113 2332128 |
Fax |
|
44 113 244611 |
| Partner |
|
Howmedica Europe, F/IRL |
| Partner |
|
Poly-Hi Solidur Meditech,
DE |
| Partner |
|
United Leeds Teaching
Hospitals, UK |
| Summary |
|
Wear and failure of
ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene |
|
(UHMWPE) and the
generation of UHMWPE wear particles is a major |
|
cause of osteolysis,
loosening and failure of total artificial hip and knee |
|
joints. The
wear-debris-osteolysis chain involves complex interactive |
|
wear mechanisms and
biological processes and at present there is |
|
little understanding of
the relationships between the tribological design |
|
and the prosthesis and the
loosening of the prosthesis. The key |
|
objectives of the research
are to develop joint simulators for both |
|
contact visualisation and
long-term wear studies; investigate wear |
|
processes versus analysis
of the stress distribution and crack |
|
propagation in
polyethylene layers, investigate wear processes, wear |
|
rates and wear particle
morphologies in simple configuration wear |
|
tests and joint
simulators; study the biological reactions to wear debris |
| Achievements |
|
Theoretical computer based
models have been developed to predict |
|
the three dimensional
stress distributions which give rise to fatigue and |
|
fracture of UHMWPE tibial
inserts. Cases and conditions have been |
|
identified where the three
dimensional stress field exceeds the yields |
|
stress of the UHMWPE and
changes in knee design and geometries |
|
have been proposed to
reduce stress levels and stress singularities |
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