Author(s)

T.M. McGloughlin

Abstract

Recent experience with prosthetic knee implants has shown that despite the widespread success of the surgical procedure and the restoration to activity it provides to patients suffering from arthritic disorders, certain key design problems remain to be solved. Perhaps the most serious of these problems is the high wear rate of the polymeric insert in the tibial component of the joint replacement. This high wear rate has been attributed to high levels of contact stress at the metal to polymer interface and also to the fact that this contact stress condition can cause the polymer surface to oscillate from tension to compression during the sliding and rolling motions which occur at the joint during normal walking. These oscillating stresses can induce fatigue type failures in the polyme

Keywords