A comparative joint simulator study of the wear of metal-on-metal and alternative material combinations in hip replacements

While total hip replacement represents the major success story in orthopaedic surgery in the twentieth century, there is much interest in extending even further, early in the twenty first century, the life of implants. Osteolysis has been identified as a major factor limiting the life of prostheses, with indications that fine polyethylene wear debris, generated primarily at the interface between the femoral head and the acetabular cup, promotes the process. There is therefore considerable interest in the introduction of alternative wear resistant systems to limit the deleterious effects of wear. These alternatives include ceramic-on-ceramic and metal-on-metal configurations and the present paper is primarily concerned with the latter. Some six pairs of new metal-on-metal implants of 36 mm diameter and four pairs of existing metal-on-metal implants of 28 mm diameter were tested in a ten-station hip joint simulator in the presence of a 25 per cent bovine serum solution. The implants were tested in the anatomical position to 5 × 10 6 cycles. The new heads and cups were manufactured from CoCrMo alloy with careful attention being paid to sphericity and surface finish of both components The wear performance of the new and existing metal-on-metal total hip replacements have been evaluated and compared. The overall wear rates have then been compared with previously reported wear rates for a zirconia-on-polyethylene prosthesis of 22 mm diameter tested on the same simulator. The comparison is taken further by recalling published penetration data for metal-on-polyethylene implants of 22 and 28 mm diameter and converting these to volumetric wear rates. It was found that the heads and cups in metal-on-metal joints wore by almost equal amounts and that the opposing surfaces converged to similar surface roughnesses as the testing time increased. Steady state wear rates were generally achieved after 1–2 × 10 6 cycles. The mean long-term wear rates for the metal-on-metal prostheses were very low, being 0.36 mm 3 /10 6 cycles and 0.45 mm 3 /10 6 cycles for the new implants of 36 mm diameter and established implants of 28 mm diameter respectively. These wear rates compare with 6.3 mm 3 /10 6 cycles for zirconia-on-ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene tested on the same simulator and representative clinical values for metal-on-polyethylene of 36 mm 3 /year for heads of 22 mm diameter and a reported range of 60–180 mm 3 /year for 28 mm heads. These values do not translate directly into numbers of particles, since the metallic debris from metal-on-metal joints is very fine. The number of metallic particles may exceed the number of polyethylene wear particles from an otherwise similar metal-on-polyethylene joint by a factor of 103. A detailed discussion of the size and morphology of wear debris and tissue reaction to various forms of debris is beyond the scope of this paper, but the biological response to polymeric, metallic and ceramic wear debris forms a major subject for further study. The present investigation nevertheless confirms the potential of carefully designed and manufactured metal-on-metal total replacement joints for the treatment of diseased and damaged hips.