Abstract

Doc number: 109

Abstract

Background: At present time the number of implantations of joint replacements as well as their revisions increases. Higher demands are required on the quality and longevity of implants. The aim of this work was to determine the degree of oxidative degradation and the amount of free/residual radicals in selected ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) components of the joint replacements and demonstrate that the measured values are closely connected with quality and lifetime of the polymer components.

Methods: We tested both new (4 samples) and explanted (4 samples) UHMWPE polymers for total joint replacements. The samples were characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR), electron spin resonance (ESR) and microhardness (MH) test. The IR measurements yielded the values of oxidation index and trans-vinylene index. The ESR measurements gave the free radicals concentration.

Results: In the group of new polyethylene components, we found oxidation index values ranging from 0.00-0.03 to 0.24. The trans-vinylene index values ranged from 0.044 to 0.080. The value of free radical concentration was zero in virgin and also in sample of Beznoska Company and non-zero in the other samples. In the group of explanted components, the measured values were associated with their history, micromechanical properties and performance in vivo.

Conclusions: We demonstrated that measuring of oxidative damage may help the orthopaedic surgeon in estimating the quality of UHMWPE replacement component and thus radically to avoid early joint replacement failure due to worse polyethylene quality.

Details

Title
Quantification of structural changes of UHMWPE components in total joint replacements
Author
Fulin, Petr; Pokorny, David; Slouf, Miroslav; Nevoralova, Martina; Vackova, Tatana; Dybal, Jiri; Pilar, Jan
Pages
109
Publication year
2014
Publication date
2014
Publisher
BioMed Central
e-ISSN
14712474
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1514007804
Copyright
© 2014 Fulin et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.