Assessing the material loss of the modular taper interface in retrieved metal-on-metal hip replacements

Measuring the amount of material loss in the case of revised hip replacements is considered to be a prerequisite of understanding and assessing the true in vivo performance of the implant. This paper outlines a method developed by the authors for quantifying taper material loss as well as more general taper interface parameters. Previous studies have mostly relied on visual inspection to assess the material loss at the taper interface, whereas this method aims to characterize any surface and form changes through the use of an out-of-roundness measurement machine. Along with assessing the volumetric wear, maximum linear penetration and taper contact length can also be determined. The method was applied to retrieved large head metal-on-metal femoral heads in order to quantify the material loss at this junction. Material loss from the female femoral head taper can be characterized as a localized area that is in contact with the stem taper surface. The study showed that this method has good repeatability and a low level of interoperability variation between operators.