S022013 The effect that hard coating to artificial hip joint gives to wear resistance

Abstract

Hip replacement arthroplasties have been increasing in number as the number of patients with coxarthrosis is increasing. Prosthetic hip joints of the surface replacement type with metal-metal contact are considered to be an effective choice for bone preservation. It is however shown that the metal-metal contact type prosthetic hip joint could be toxic to human cells when the abrasion powder of the Co-Cr alloy, a component of the joint, is ionized. In the present study we examined ceramic-coated metal pieces of the Co-Cr alloy. Using the Pin-On-Disk abrasion test method, we investigated their abrasion resistance and the elution of the metal ions into a pseudo body fluid. As a result, the metal pieces with DLC coating(a-C:H and ta-C) showed the best performances in terms of the frictional coefficient, the abrasion resistance and the elution property of the ions.