Investigation on wear of knee prostheses under fixed kinematic conditions

Although polyethylene components have been used in the human joint for over 30 years, wear simulation studies are fundamental to assess wear resistance of total joint replacements. This assessment will help to obtain quality control and acquire further knowledge of the tribological processes that involve joint prostheses. As a result, the risk of implant failure of innovative prostheses will be reduced. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence on wear of the polyethylene tibial inserts against metallic femoral components using a knee simulator following a standardized kinematics protocol (ISO/CD 14243-3.2). Four intact "small" size specimens of the tibial MP 913 were tested in a four-station knee wear simulator for two million cycles. The volumetric weight loss for the ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene (UHMWPE) tibial inserts was 44 +/- 2, 45 +/- 3, and 47 +/- 3 mg for the specimens #1-3, respectively. This study demonstrated a good repeatability among the stations of the knee simulator obtaining weight loss values congruent with those found by other authors using similar test conditions.