Short-term Wear Analysis and Clinical Performance of Large Ceramic Heads on Highly Cross-linked Polyethylene in Young and Active Patients

Meftah, Morteza; Ebrahimpour, Prouskeh Bruce; He, Chuan; Ranawat, Amar S.; Ranawat, Chitranjan S.

doi:10.1053/j.sart.2011.09.002

« Previous Next »Seminars in Arthroplasty
Volume 22, Issue 4 , Pages 225-228, December 2011

Short-term Wear Analysis and Clinical Performance of Large Ceramic Heads on Highly Cross-linked Polyethylene in Young and Active Patients

Morteza Meftah, MD
- Department of Orthopaedics, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY
Prouskeh Bruce Ebrahimpour, MD
- Department of Orthopaedics, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY
Chuan He, MD, PhD
- Department of Orthopaedics, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Medical School, Shanghai, China
Amar S. Ranawat, MD
- Department of Orthopaedics, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY
Chitranjan S. Ranawat, MD
- Department of Orthopaedics, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY
- Address reprint requests to Chitranjan S. Ranawat, MD, Department of Orthopaedics, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 E 70th St, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10021

We hypothesized that large ceramic head articulation against highly cross-linked polyethylene in young and active patients would have high safety for dislocation and fracture and low wear rates. Wear analysis of 32 hips with 36-mm Delta ceramic femoral heads (CeramTec, Plochingen, Germany) on highly cross-linked polyethylene was performed using Roman software (Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, United Kingdom). The mean age was 56.8 ± 6.5 years, and the mean follow-up was 2.6 ± 0.5 years. The mean wear rate was 0.022 ± 0.11 mm/year after the bedding-in period. There were no reoperations. The early results of large ceramic heads in young and active patients demonstrate high safety and efficacy.

Keywords: highly-crosslinked polyethylene , ceramic femoral head , total hip replacement , wear analysis