Advanced biomaterials in hip joint arthroplasty. A review on polymer and ceramics composites as alternative bearings
Section snippets
Brief history of total hip arthroplasty
Total Hip Replacement (THR) is one of the most common operations performed in the world today. An increasingly ageing population means that the number of people undergoing this operation is set to rise. The hip is a ball and socket joint formed by the head of the thigh bone (the femur) and a section of the pelvis called the “acetabulum” [1]. The stability of this structure is obtained by the bony configuration combined with a complex system of muscles and ligaments around the joint [2].
The hip
Biomaterials used in the orthopaedic field and their improvement
A biomaterial is a material that interacts with human tissue and body fluids to treat, improve, or replace anatomical elements of the human body. Biomaterials that are used in medical devices for orthopaedics application are commonly called implants; the main characteristics of these biomaterials are summarized in Table 1. These are manufactured for a great number of orthopaedic applications. Clinical results in orthopaedics have demonstrated that a great need exists to find new and better
Composites materials for hip applications
A composite material can be defined as a combination of two or more materials that results in better properties than those of the individual components used alone. In contrast to metallic alloys, each component of the composite material retains its separate chemical, physical, and mechanical properties. In the usual bi-components composites, one material is present in a continuous or discontinuous form (such as filament or particles) and is called reinforcement, the other material is always
Comparison across wear tests using a hip simulator
The in vitro tests using a hip simulator were performed on ceramic and polyethylene materials. International literature on alumina and/or zirconia reports the effects on wear of different ceramic composites. In particular, in the 2001, Affatato and co-workers [84] tested two new types of mixed-oxide ceramics (alumina and yttria-stabilized zirconia) femoral heads and acetabular cups containing different ratios of alumina and zirconia. These components were compared with pure commercial alumina
Conclusions and future trend
In this review, many aspects of the hip joint materials were taken into account, showing how many researches are currently developed to obtain composite material with better characteristic than the single matrix or reinforcement phase, for both ceramic and polymer materials. These develops, pushed on by the industries, have a strong impact on the biomedical field. Combination of multi-phased composite aim at improving mechanical and tribological behaviours of the currently widespread hip joint
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Luigi Lena (Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute) for its help with the images.
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