Ultrasound gel minimizes third body debris with partial hardware removal in joint arthroplasty

Hundreds of thousands of revision surgeries for hip, knee, and shoulder joint arthroplasties are now performed worldwide annually. Partial removal of hardware during some types of revision surgeries may create significant amounts of third body metal, polymer, or bone cement debris. Retained debris may lead to a variety of negative health effects including damage to the joint replacement. We describe a novel technique for the better containment and easier removal of third body debris during partial hardware removal. We demonstrate hardware removal on a hip joint model in the presence and absence of water-soluble gel to depict the reduction in metal debris volume and area of spread.