Resistance of a novel ceramic acetabular cup to critical impact loads

A novel thin-walled direct-to-bone fixation ceramic cup was tested under critical impact loads simulating lateral fall and car crash scenarios. Three sizes of BIOLOX delta ceramic cups (total hip replacement cup with bearing diameter of 32 mm and two hip resurfacing cups with bearing diameters of 40 and 64mm) were implanted into reamed Sawbones blocks representing acetabulae. Three cups of each size were fully supported by the block and three were implanted with 15° of the cup's outer diameter unsupported by the block. All testing was conducted with the corresponding bearing diameter heads lateralised by approximately 1 mm to represent worst case subluxed hips and all then subjected to test, replicating a lateral fall impact followed by a car crash impact. All cups passed lateral fall conditions without visible damage, although some movement of the cups was measured and damage to the blocks was observed. Five out of six of each cup size survived the car crash impacts with one fracture per size. In all cases, this was in the fully supported condition representing the highest cup inclination angle. The car crash impact force was equivalent to that reported to fracture the acetabulum and in all simulated cases, the Sawbones block showed signs of damage. Survival of five cups per size suggests the pelvis is much more likely to fracture before the cup. The ability of the cups to withstand these critical impact forces indicates they are unlikely to fracture in normal clinical use and should meet the more challenging demands of active patients likely to receive this device.