Synopsis
The wear behavior of a femoral head made of CoCrMo against an acetabular cup made of CoCrMo (CoCrMo/CoCrMo coupling) was compared with that of a femoral head made of CoCrMo against an acetabular cup made of cross link (CL) - ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) (CoCrMo/CL-UHMWPE coupling) using a hip joint simulator. The wear amount of CoCrMo/CoCrMo coupling was much lower than that of CoCrMo/CL-UHMWPE coupling. However, the wear debris generated from CoCrMo/CoCrMo coupling was consisted of a large number of wear particles with 100 nm size, resulted in increasing the total surface area of the metal. Therefore, Co and Cr ions drastically dissolved from CoCrMo/CoCrMo coupling in the serum after 50 ~ 104 cycles. Therefore, it is necessary for further research of metal on metal total replacement joints to improve materials and design carefully.
Key words: metal-on-metal hip arthroplasty, hip simulator, wear, metal debris, metal ion
