Local cartilage defects in the knee are painful and mostly followed by arthritis. In order to avoid impaired mobility, the osteochondral defect might be bridged by a synthetic compound material: An osteoconductive titanium foam as an anchoring material in the subchondral bone and an infiltrated polymer as gliding material in contact with the surrounding natural cartilage. Titanium foam cylinders (Ø38 mm) with porosities ranging from 57% to 77% were produced by powder metallurgy with two different grain sizes of the space holder (fine: 340 ± 110 μm, coarse: 530 ± 160 μm). The sintered titanium foam cylinders were infiltrated with UHMWPE powder on one end and UHMWPE bulk at the other end, at two different temperatures (160 °C, 200 °C), using a pressure of 20 MPa for 15 minutes. Smaller cylinders (Ø16 mm) were retrieved from the compound material by water jet cutting. The infiltration depths were determined by optical microscopy. The anchoring of the UHMWPE was measured by a shear test and the mechanical properties of the titanium foam were verified by a subsequent compression test. The tribological behaviour was investigated in protein containing liquid using fresh cartilage pins (Ø5 mm) sliding against a UHMWPE disc with or without a notch to simulate the gap between the implant and the surrounding cartilage. Friction coefficients were determined in a rotation tribometer and the cartilage wear in a multidirectional six-station tribometer from AMTI (load 10 – 50 N, sliding speed 20 mm/s, 37 °C).Introduction and Objective
Materials and Methods
