Damage evolution in acetabular replacements under long-term physiological loading conditions

Damage development in cemented acetabular replacements has been studied in bovine pelvic bones under long-term physiological loading conditions, including normal walking, stair climbing and a combined block loading with representative routine activities. The physiological loading conditions were achieved using a specially designed hip simulator for fixation endurance testing. Damage was detected and monitored using micro-CT scanning at regular intervals of the experiments, and verified by microscopic studies post testing. The results show that debonding at the bone–cement interface defined the failure of cement fixation in all cases, and debondings initiated near the dome of the acetabulum in the superior–posterior quadrant, consistent with the high-stress region identified from the finite element analysis of implanted acetabular models Zant, N.P., Heaton-Adegbile, P., Hussell, J.G., Tong, J., 2008b. In-vitro fatigue failure of cemented acetabular replacements—a hip simulator study. Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, Transactions of the ASME, 130, 021019-1–9]; [Tong, J., Zant, N.P., Wang, J-Y., Heaton-Adegbile, P., Hussell, J.G., 2008. Fatigue in cemented acetabulum. International Journal of Fatigue, 30(8), 1366–1375].