Corrosion in modular femoral hip prostheses: a study of 22 retrieved implants

Author

Mevellec, C. ; Burleigh, T.D. ; Shanbhag, A.S.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Orthopaedic Surg., Pittsburgh Univ., PA, USA

fYear

1996

fDate

29-31 Mar 1996

Firstpage

3

Lastpage

4

Abstract

Retrieved modular hip prostheses were examined to determine the mechanism of corrosion at the Co-Cr alloy head, Ti-alloy neck taper junction. The corrosion at the neck was consistently more severe in the posterior medial distal region, and the specimens with the highest corrosion score all had a head-neck extension. Fretting, pitting and etching-type attacks were detected, and the corrosion product was predominantly a thin layer composed of Ti, Cr and Mo. The authors´ findings suggest that the corrosion is due to the cumulative effect of an acidic crevice environment and micro motion at the interface during weight bearing causing breakdown of the passive layers

Keywords

bone; chromium alloys; cobalt alloys; corrosion; prosthetics; Co-Cr; Co-Cr alloy head; Ti-alloy neck taper junction; Ti6Al4V; TiAlV; acidic crevice environment; etching-type attacks; fretting; head-neck extension; micro motion; modular femoral hip prostheses corrosion; passive layers breakdown; pitting; posterior medial distal region; retrieved implants; weight bearing; Chromium; Corrosion; Etching; Hip; Implants; Materials science and technology; Neck; Orthopedic surgery; Prosthetics; Scanning electron microscopy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Biomedical Engineering Conference, 1996., Proceedings of the 1996 Fifteenth Southern

Conference_Location

Dayton, OH

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3131-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SBEC.1996.493098

Filename

493098