Study of hardness and roughness modifications in explanted joint components

The significant wear of the UHMWPE bearings of explanted knee prostheses is produced mainly by micrometric debris ("third-body" wear) that diffuse toward the mobile metal-polymer interface. Here debris is crushed during the movement producing scratches in the metal and in the polymeric surfaces. Mechanical stress and the biological effects change the physical polymeric properties. In order to evaluate the area of UHMWE bearings submitted to high load stresses, in this work physical investigations are performed on the explanted knee prosthesis. Particularly, the roughness profile analysis (RPA) and the micro-hardness measurements (MHM) resulted suitable for the localisation of the mechanical and biological wear area. In the stressed zone, surface treatments could be applied in order to improve the mechanical resistance of the polymeric material. Particularly, the ion implantation with heavy ions is proposed to enhance the polymeric wear resistance. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDX) and Infrared absorption spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques were also applied and results discussed.