Wear of Highly Cross-linked Polyethylene against Cobalt Chrome and Ceramic Femoral Heads

+*Jennings, L M; *Galvin, A L; *Fisher J +Institute of Medical & Biological Engineering, Leeds, UK [email protected] Introduction There is increasing interest in the coupling of highly cross-linked polyethylene with large diameter heads in the hip, due to the reported lower wear characteristics of highly cross-linked polyethylene compared to conventional polyethylene [1, 2, 3]. Further, both clinical experience and in vitro physiological simulator studies have demonstrated an advantage of alumina over metallic femoral heads with a reduction in wear being reported for conventional polyethylene on ceramic heads compared to metallic heads [4]. There are limited clinical reports of ceramic femoral heads articulating against cross-linked polyethylene, although in a 17 year study by Wroblewski, no further penetration of cross-linked polyethylene articulating against 22.225 mm alumina ceramic was observed after the first two years [5]. The aim of this study was to determine the wear of large (size 36 mm) highly cross-linked polyethylene inserts against ceramic and cobalt chrome femoral heads using a physiological hip simulator and test conditions.