Influence of design and bearing material on polyethylene wear particle generation in total knee replacement

Periprosthetic osteolysis is one of the main reasons for revision of arthroplasty. The osteolytic reaction is influenced by the dose, size and shape of the wear particles. For arthroplasty, a low number and biologically less active particles are required. This is the first study which analyzes the impact of different knee designs, combined with crosslinked polyethylenes (sequentially irradiated and annealed as well as remelted techniques), on the amount, size and shape of particles. Overall, six material combinations, four of them with crosslinked polyethylene (XPE) and two of them with ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) inserts, including fixed and mobile bearings, were tested in a knee joint simulator. After isolation nearly 100,000 particles were analyzed in size, shape and number by scanning electron microscopy and image analysis. For all the designs, the wear was predominantly smooth and granular with few fibrillar particles. The Scorpio® design with the X3™ insert, the Natural Knee® II design with the Durasul™ insert and the LCS® design, also combined with a crosslinked polyethylene insert, generated statistically significant (P < 0.05) lower particle numbers. The particle size was independent of the radiation dose. The wear generated by the LCS® knee design (XPE and UHMWPE) had a higher percentage fraction of particles >1 μm in size (equivalent circle diameter). The NexGen® design, tested with the Prolong™ insert, showed a high number of particles in the biologically active size range compared with the other crosslinked designs, which could be a predictor for higher biological reactivity.