Comparison of Oxidative and Mechanical Properties in 1st- and 2nd-Generation Annealed Polyethylenes

摘要

Highly crosslinked polyethylenes were clinically introduced over a decade ago to reduce the incidence of wear-debris induced osteolysis. Since then, 2nd generation highly crosslinked polyethylenes have been developed to address concerns such as fracture and oxidation in lst-generation remelted and annealed polyethylenes, respectively1. One approach is to irradiate then anneal polyethylene in three sequential steps (X3, Stryker), as opposed to a single irradiation step followed by a single annealing step (Crossfire, Stryker). While sequential annealing has shown promising results during in vitro tests1'2, its clinical performance relative to 1st generation annealing remains unknown.