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Updated: Jan 27, 2026

Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty
Published on: July 5, 2011
The effect of combined loading cycles on the wear of reverse shoulder joint replacements
Israel Ramírez-Martínez1, Simon L Smith1, Thomas J Joyce1
1Bioengineering Group, School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, England, UK.
Abstract:
Wear of polyethylene is a current limitation in the long-term survival of reverse shoulder arthroplasties (RSAs). The purpose of this study was to investigate, for the first time, the influence of a combination of clinically relevant activities of daily living (ADLs) as patterns of motion and loading on the wear of ultra-high molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) in RSA. This physiological combined cycle, termed "repeated-motion-load", was applied on four new samples of a commercially available reverse shoulder prosthesis for five million cycles using the unique Newcastle Shoulder Wear Simulator. This resulted in a mean wear rate of 12.0 ± 3.9 mm3/million cycles for the UHMWPE components in combination with metallic glenospheres, while the average articulating UHMWPE surface roughness reduced from 692 ± 132 nm Sa to 42 ± 29 nm Sa.
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