Quantitative characterization of polyethylene debris isolated from periprosthetic tissue in early failure knee implants and early and late failure Charnley hip implants

This study isolated and characterized UHMWPE particles from 3 explant groups: early Charnley hip failures (ECE; < 10 years), late Charnley hip failures (LCE; > 10 years) and early knee failures (EKE; < 10 years). Debris isolated from the 3 groups had percentage particle number and percentage volumetric concentration distributions that were not significantly different. The greatest number of particles were found in the 0.1–0.5 μm size range and 19–20.6% of the volumetric concentration was below 1 μm in size in all groups. However, there were significant differences in the total volumetric concentration of debris isolated per g of tissue. LCE had significantly higher volumes of debris than ECE and EKE, there was no significant difference in the volume of debris from the EKE and ECE. The mean aspect ratio and mean irregularity ratio of the LCE group were also significantly higher than the ECE and EKE, suggesting that different wear mechanisms were occurring in the late Charnley group compared to the early Charnley and knee groups. These results also suggest that early knees, with normal surface wear, may have similar wear mechanisms to early Charnley hips and indicate that similar volumes of biologically active micrometer and sub‐micrometer UHMWPE particles were produced. This may have important implications in the longer‐term outcome of total knee arthroplasties, because it indicates a similar potential for osteolysis induced by wear debris. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res (Appl Biomater) 58: 415–420, 2001