Contact mechanics analysis of metal-on-metal hip resurfacing prostheses

Finite-element method was employed to study the contact mechanics in metal-on-metal hip resurfacing prostheses, with particular reference to the effects of bone quality, the fixation condition between the acetabular cup and bone, and the clearance between the femoral head and the acetabular cup. Simple finite-element bone models were developed to simulate the contact between the articulating surfaces of the femoral head and the acetabular cup. The stresses within the bone structure were also studied. It was shown that a decrease in the clearance between the acetabular cup and femoral head had the largest effect on reducing the predicted contact-pressure distribution among all the factors considered in this study. It was found that as the clearance was reduced, the influence of the underlying materials, such as bone and cement, became increasingly important. Stress shielding was determined to occur in the bone tissue surrounding the hip resurfacing prosthesis considered in this study. However, the stress-shielding effects predicted were less than those observed in conventional total hip replacements. Both the effects of bone quality (reduction in elastic modulus) and the fixation condition between the cup and the bone were found to have a negligible effect on the predicted contact mechanics at the bearing surface. The loading was found to have a relatively small effect on the predicted maximum contact pressure at the bearing surface; this was attributed to an increase in contact area as the load was increased.