Ceramic femoral heads generated less linear polyethylene cup wear over 20 years
German researchers concluded after two decades of investigation that ceramic femoral heads create less linear polyethylene cup wear over time compared with metal heads.
While the cobalt-chromium-molybdenum (CoCrMo) group showed a mean 0.190 mm/year wear rate in the long-term study – which examined long-term wear analysis of femoral heads over a 20-year period – the ceramic head group had a 0.107 mm/year wear rate, which caused “significantly less osteolysis and revisions of either component,” the authors wrote in the abstract. The paper was published in Seminars in Arthroscopy.
In 80 patients, surgeons performed 93 consecutive uncemented hip arthroplasties using a titanium-coated cup and cementless stem. Eighty ceramic and 13 CoCrMo 32-mm diameter femoral heads were used. On average, patients followed up for 19.3 years and no patient was lost during follow-up, according to the abstract.
While the cobalt-chromium-molybdenum (CoCrMo) group showed a mean 0.190 mm/year wear rate in the long-term study – which examined long-term wear analysis of femoral heads over a 20-year period – the ceramic head group had a 0.107 mm/year wear rate, which caused “significantly less osteolysis and revisions of either component,” the authors wrote in the abstract. The paper was published in Seminars in Arthroscopy.
In 80 patients, surgeons performed 93 consecutive uncemented hip arthroplasties using a titanium-coated cup and cementless stem. Eighty ceramic and 13 CoCrMo 32-mm diameter femoral heads were used. On average, patients followed up for 19.3 years and no patient was lost during follow-up, according to the abstract.
