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Medical Polymer Group

Medical Polymer Group

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      • Wear Testing
      • Fatigue Crack Propagation of UHMWPE
      • Retrieval Analysis
      • UHMWPE Glenoid Retrievals
      • Cobalt Chrome Humeral Head Retrievals
      • 3D Profilometry Analysis of Surface Damage on CoCr Humeral Head Retrievals
      • Modular Junctions in Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty
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Wear Testing

The figure below shows our custom-built, multi-directional tribological system. This system, nicknamed “Elvis”, was constructed in our lab to perform wear testing of metal-on-polymer bearing system used in orthopedic devices. This system utilizes a ball-on-flat setup to simulate three basic joint kinematic motions – translation, rotation, and rolling – to evaluate the amount of potential wear a material will have in vivo. Previous work in our lab has demonstrated a positive correlation between ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) wear and cross-shear that results from multidirectional motion. Current projects involve testing a polycarbonate-urethane material (Bionate, DSM Biomedical) that could potentially be used as a counter-bearing material in the shoulder joint.

Aside from testing new materials, Elvis is currently being adapted to replicate shoulder kinematics to develop a clinically-relevant wear gait model of the joint to better understand the relationship between shoulder designs and joint kinematics on wear. Ongoing work is focused on understanding the influence of fixation and conformity on wear and surface damage on UHMWPE. With our extensive library of retrieved shoulder devices, we are currently taking advantage of our damage assessment protocol and profilometry work to directly correlate damage reproduced in our laboratory simulator with in vivo damage seen on devices obtained from patients.

Patten, E. W., Van Citters, D., Ries, M. D., & Pruitt, L. A. (2013). Wear of UHMWPE from Sliding, Rolling, and Rotation in a Multidirectional Tribo-system. Wear. 304 (1-2), 60-66.

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