Tribological Evaluation of a Drug Enriched Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene for Enhanced Total Joint Replacement Bearing Surface Functionality

摘要

Results show that ALN is being released from both the thin films and bulk of PE-ALN. Similar pin-on-disk wear rates were observed between PE and PE-ALN with a linear ALN release rate. Additionally, pins showed that the majority of ALN remained trapped in the bulk until wear occurred with a total of less than 2.5% of entrapped ALN being released by the end of the 40km study. TKR wear testing study showed that PE-ALN performs comparably in average weight loss per million cycles to the virgin PE at 2M cycles. Overall, these studies indicate that this material shows significant potential for an alternative bearing material to indirectly increase TJR longevity by addressing osteolysis related issues.