Sanders, A. P., P. J. Dudhiya, and R. M. Brannon. (2012). “Thin Hard Crest on the Edge of Ceramic Acetabular Liners Accelerates Wear in Edge Loading.” Journal of Arthroplasty 27(1): 150-152.

Abstract

Ceramic acetabular liners may exhibit a small, sharp crest—an artifact of discontinuous machining steps—at the junction between the concave spherical surface and the interior edge. On 3 ceramic liners, this crest was found to form a 9° to 11° deviation from tangency. Edge loading wear tests were conducted directly on this crest and on a smoother region of the edge. The crest elicited 2 to 15 times greater volumetric wear on the femoral head. The propensity of the crest to rapidly (<2000 wear cycles) cause elevated wear under low contact force (200 N) suggests that the crest artifact of prevailing machining protocols might be a root cause of stripe wear and squeaking in ceramic acetabular bearings.

Available online:

doi:10.1016/j.arth.2011.08.012.