Prediction of Wear in Crosslinked Polyethylene Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty
Jonathan Netter,
Juan Hermida,
Cesar Flores-Hernandez,
Nikolai Steklov,
Mark Kester,
Darryl D. D'Lima
Affiliations
Jonathan Netter
Shiley Center for Orthopaedic Research and Education at Scripps Clinic, Scripps Health, 11025 North Torrey Pines Road, Suite 200, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
Juan Hermida
Shiley Center for Orthopaedic Research and Education at Scripps Clinic, Scripps Health, 11025 North Torrey Pines Road, Suite 200, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
Cesar Flores-Hernandez
Shiley Center for Orthopaedic Research and Education at Scripps Clinic, Scripps Health, 11025 North Torrey Pines Road, Suite 200, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
Nikolai Steklov
Shiley Center for Orthopaedic Research and Education at Scripps Clinic, Scripps Health, 11025 North Torrey Pines Road, Suite 200, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
Mark Kester
Stryker Orthopaedics, 325 Corporate Drive Court, Mahwah, NJ 07430, USA
Darryl D. D'Lima
Shiley Center for Orthopaedic Research and Education at Scripps Clinic, Scripps Health, 11025 North Torrey Pines Road, Suite 200, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
Wear-related complications remain a major issue after unicompartmental arthroplasty. We used a computational model to predict knee wear generated in vitro under diverse conditions. Inverse finite element analysis of 2 different total knee arthroplasty designs was used to determine wear factors of standard and highly crosslinked polyethylene by matching predicted wear rates to measured wear rates. The computed wear factor was used to predict wear in unicompartmental components. The articular surface design and kinematic conditions of the unicompartmental and tricompartmental designs were different. Predicted wear rate (1.77 mg/million cycles) was very close to experimental wear rate (1.84 mg/million cycles) after testing in an AMTI knee wear simulator. Finite element analysis can predict experimental wear and may reduce the cost and time of preclinical testing.
