The influence of acetabular cup angle on the wear of "BIOLOX Forte" alumina ceramic bearing couples in a hip joint simulator

The wear of "Biolox Forte" alumina ceramic bearing couples has been investigated at two different acetabular cup angles in a physiological hip joint simulator. All cups were set in the anatomical position of 45 degrees inclination in the M/L plane for the first two million cycles and then four of the six cups were re-aligned to 60 degrees for a further three million cycles. A "running-in" wear of 0.14 mm(3) per million cycles was observed for the first million cycles, after which a steady state wear rate of 0.05 mm(3) per million cycles was observed. Increasing the acetabular cup angle to 60 degrees did not significantly affect the wear rate. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.