NEW (POSITIVE) CERAMIC-ON-POLY DATA (Orthopedics This Week)
So how have different bearing surfaces “trended” of late? Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles set out to determine how selection of such total hip arthroplasty (THA) surfaces has varied from 2007 through 2014.
The study was titled, “Total Hip Arthroplasty Bearing Surface Trends in the United States From 2007 to 2014: The Rise of Ceramic on Polyethylene,” and appears in the January 9, 2018 edition of the Journal of Arthroplasty.
Jay R. Lieberman, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Keck, was the senior author on the study. He told OTW, “We know that there was an uptick in the use of ceramic-on-polyethylene liners around 2008, with a decrease in metal-on-polyethylene.”
“This trend will likely continue due to taper corrosion. We do not have a secure grasp on the size of the problem, however. Some surgeons treating younger patients have halted the use of metal heads because of concerns about taper corrosion; but in older patients the use of metal heads is continuing. In addition, it looks like taper corrosion may be more common in stems made by certain manufacturers. ...
