Influence of a foreign body on the wear of metallic femoral heads and polyethylene acetabular cups of total hip prostheses

Excessive wear of polyethylene in total replacement hip prostheses elicits deleterious biologic reactions and may be thus a limiting factor that compr omises the long-term performance of these devices. This study is based on t he report of two clinical failures of total hip prostheses with metallic fe moral heads and polyethylene acetabular cups. The investigations reveal tha t foreign bodies (titanium fibermesh pieces) can migrate into the joint spa ce of total hip prostheses and participate in abrasive third-body wear of t he polyethylene cups. This excessive wear of polyethylene enhanced by the m odification of the metallic counterface roughness is likely to induce the e arly loosening of the devices. (C) 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers.