Objectives
Wear debris released from bearing surfaces has been shown to provoke negative immune responses in the recipient. Excessive wear has been linked to early failure of prostheses. Analysis using coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) can provide estimates of total volumetric material loss of explanted prostheses and can help to understand device failure. The accuracy of volumetric testing has been debated, with some investigators stating that only protocols involving hundreds of thousands of measurement points are sufficient. We looked to examine this assumption and to apply the findings to the clinical arena.
Methods
We examined the effects on the calculated material loss from a ceramic femoral head when different CMM scanning parameters were used. Calculated wear volumes were compared with gold standard gravimetric tests in a blinded study.