Abstract
Introduction
A majority of the acetabular shells used today are designed to be press-fit into the acetabulum. Adequate initial stability of the press-fit implant is required to achieve biologic fixation, which provides long-term stability for the implant. Amongst other clinical factors, shell seating and initial stability are driven by the interaction between the implant's outer geometry and the prepared bone cavity. The goal of this study was to compare the seating and initial stability of commercially available hemispherical and rim-loading designs.
Materials and Methods
The hemispherical test group (n=6) consisted of 66mm Trident Hemispherical shells (Stryker, Mahwah NJ) and the rim-loading test group (n=6) consisted of 66mm Trident PSL shells (Stryker, Mahwah NJ). The Trident PSL shell outer geometry is hemispherical at the dome and has a series of normalizations near the rim. The Trident Hemispherical shell outer geometry is completely hemispherical. Both shells are clinically successful and feature identical arc-deposited roughened CpTi with HA coatings on their outer geometry.
Hemispherical cavities were machined in 20pcf polyurethane foam blocks (Pacific Research Laboratories, WA) to replicate the press-fit prescribed in each shell's surgical protocol. The cavity for the hemispherical design was machined to 65mm (1mm-under ream) and the cavity for the rim-loading design was machined to 67mm (1mm- over ream). Note that the rim-loading design features ∼2mm build-up of material at the rim when compared to the hemispherical design.
The shells were seated into the foam blocks using a drop tower (Instron Dynatup 9250G, Instron Corporation, Norwood, MA) by applying 7 impacts of 6.58J/ea,. The number and energy of impacts are clinically relevant value obtained from surgeon data collection through a validated measurement technique. Seating height was measured from the shell rim to the cavity hemispherical equator (top surface foam block) using a height gage, thus, a low value indicates a deeply seated shell.
A straight torque out bar was assembled to the threads at the shell dome hole and a linear load was applied with a MTS Mechanical Test Frame (MTS Corporation, Eden Prairie, MN) to create an angular displacement rate of 0.1 degrees/second about the shell center. Yield moment of the shell-cavity interface, representing failure of fixation, was calculated from the output of force, linear, displacement, and time. Two sample T-tests were conducted to determine statistical significance.
Results
Seating height for the rim-loading design was 0.041 ± 0.005in (1.0 ± 0.1mm) compared to 0.049 ± 0.008in (1.2 ± 0.2mm) for the hemispherical design. Initial stability for the rim-loading design was 33.5 ± 2.9Nm compared to 29.9 ± 4.1Nm for the hemispherical design.
Discussion
This study evaluated the seating height and initial stability of two different acetabular shell designs. Results indicate that there is no evidence for a difference in seating height (p > 0.05) and initial stability (p > 0.05) between rim-loading and hemispherical designs.
