Abstract
Introduction
A disturbing prevalence of short-term failures of metal-on-metal (MoM) hip resurfacings has been reported by joint registries. These cases have been primarily due to painful inflammatory reactions and, in extreme cases, formation of pseudotumors within periarticular soft-tissues. The likely cause is localized loading of the acetabular shell leading to “edge wear” which is often seen after precise measurement of the bearing surfaces of retrieved components. Factors contributing to edge wear of metal-on-metal arthroplasties are thought to include adverse cup orientation, patient posture, and the direction of hip loading. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of different functional activities in edge loading of hip resurfacing prostheses as a function of cup inclination and version.
Methods
We developed a computer model of the hip joint through reconstruction of CT scans of a proto-typical pelvis and femur and virtually implanting a hip resurfacing prosthesis in an ideal position. Using this model, we examined the relationship between the resultant hip force vector and the edge of the acetabular shell during walking, stair ascent and descent, and getting in and out of a chair. Load data was derived from 5 THR patients implanted with instrumented hip prostheses (Bergmann et al). We calculated the distance from the edge of the shell to the point of intersection of the load vector and the bearing surface for cup orientations ranging from 40 to 70 degrees of inclination, and 0 to 40 degrees of anteversion.
Results
The low flexion activities of normal gait, stair climbing and stair descent did not demonstrate values consistent with edge loading unless the shell was oriented in 70° inclination and 20° version. Conversely, the occurrence of edge loading was predicted during sit to stand and stand to sit activities for every orientation of the implanted components (Figure 1). Cup anteversion was not a consistent predictor of edge loading during gait, stair climbing and stair descent; but did affect the distance to the edge of the cup in sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit activities.
Conclusions
We demonstrated that normal gait, stair-climbing and stair descent do not appear to explain the edge wear seen in many of the retrieved resurfacing components. Edge loading does occur during sit to stand and stand to sit activities in virtually any cup orientation and is postulated as the missing factor explaining component wear. In our work we have effectively demonstrated that, in the absence of other confounding factors, edge loading and pseudotumor formation can happen in even the “safe” acetabular orientations. We propose this as a new way to understand the forces upon the components following HRA.
