Analysis of Retrieved Surgical Implant Devices: Alternative Bearing Surfaces

Analyses of orthopaedic devices and prostheses from surgical revisions (failures) have provided considerable and valuable information related to the causes of some unintended clinical outcomes. Thousands of explanted samples have been categorized and hundreds studied over past decades. Forensic approaches for determining cause-effect relationships specific to the prosthesis aspects of clinical performance could lead to recommendations of improvements of existing or design of new systems to further enhance clinical longevities. In the following we provide a summary of methodologies and example results from a series of recent retrieval studies aimed at the analysis of alternative bearing surfaces in orthopaedic implants.