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Biomaterials Used in Clinical Practice and Their Tribological Behaviours Assessed...
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Biomaterials Used in Clinical Practice and Their Tribological Behaviours Assessed In Vitro, In Silico, and In Vivo

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomaterials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2022) | Viewed by 5944

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Saverio Affatato

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratorio di Tecnologia Medica, IRCCS – Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Interests: biotribology; ceramic; metal; composite; biomaterials; hip; knee; simulator; in silico; prosthesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to announce this Special Issue on “Biomaterials used in Clinical Practice and Their Tribological Behavior Assessed in Vitro, in Silico, and in Vivo”.

Joint replacement surgeries (hip, knee, ankle, etc.) are a successful and consolidated branch of orthopedics. The progressive achievement in alleviating pain and disability helps patients to return to an active life. Research in new biomaterials plays an important role, and as a consequence, in vitro and in silico tests for such materials are of great importance. The knowledge of the laboratory wear rate is an important aspect in the preclinical validation of prostheses. Research and development of wear-resistant materials continues to be a high priority in order to evaluate the performance of new materials intended to reduce wear, which is essential to ascertaining their efficacy and preventing the possibility of unexpected failure. Obviously, wear tests have a long duration, and they are very expensive. In recent years, “prediction of wear” in hip and knee replacements has been a subject of intense study. In silico investigation, where algorithms could be developed to model a biomedical process, is a logical extension of controlled in vitro experimentation. It is the natural result of the explosive increase in computing power available to scientists; thus, numerical models could be used to predict results of a wear test with less time and cost. Obviously, the in silico analysis integrates but does not replace the experimental tools. In silico methods based on musculoskeletal modeling simulations are powerful tools that allow biomechanical investigations and predictions of muscle forces not accessible with experiments; this allows us to develop subject-specific models able to simultaneously predict muscle, ligament, and knee joint contact forces, which may be used to test orthopedic implants with patient-specific load configuration. The in silico approach constitutes a promising methodology in arthroplasty, allowing the prediction of tribological phenomena in preclinical wear tests.

This international peer-reviewed open access journal is indexed by the Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science) ISSN: 1996-1944, Impact Factor: 3.057.

I hope to receive many interesting contributions.

Best Regards,

Dr. Saverio Affatato
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Hip prostheses
  • Knee prostheses
  • Ankle prostheses
  • Orthopedic
  • Biomaterials
  • Composites
  • Alloys
  • Wear
  • Biotribology
  • SEM analyses
  • Micro-CT analyses
  • FEM
  • Ceramic
  • Metal
  • Polyethylene
  • Lubrication
  • Temporary spacer
  • Raman spectroscopy
  • In silico simulation
  • Multibody model
  • Corrosion

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 11985 KiB  
Article
Preliminary In Vitro Wear Assessment of Ceramic Cemented Femoral Components Coupled with Polyethylene Menisci
by Saverio Affatato, Paolo Erani, Maurizio Fersini, Vincenzo Contaldi, Anna Rita Terrizzi and Antonio Licciulli
Materials 2021, 14(9), 2112; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14092112 - 22 Apr 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1954
Abstract
Success of total knee replacement (TKR) depends on the prosthetic design and materials. The use of metal components is well established with the disadvantage of allergic reactions. Ceramics have been recently proposed because of high wear resistance, excellent biocompatibility, wettability, and suitable mechanical [...] Read more.
Success of total knee replacement (TKR) depends on the prosthetic design and materials. The use of metal components is well established with the disadvantage of allergic reactions. Ceramics have been recently proposed because of high wear resistance, excellent biocompatibility, wettability, and suitable mechanical properties. This study was aimed at investigating in vitro wear resistance of Zirconia Toughened Alumina (ZTA)/Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) of TKR femoral components. An in vitro protocol was designed with the application of relevant load profile, 6-degrees-of-freedom knee simulator, and 8 × 105 cycles on the ZTA/UHMWPE configuration under bovine calf serum. Before and after wear test, the femoral components were investigated by using the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and the X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analyses, and stylus surface roughness measurements. The proposed pre-clinical test yielded repeatable results. In particular, gravimetric results showed that, after 8 × 105 cycles, the mean weight loss of the polyethylene mobile components is 5.3 ± 1.1 mg. The surface roughness measurements (Ramax) performed after the wear test showed no significant variation on the UHMWPE menisci. A slight increase of roughness has been found on the ZTA (0.02 µm before wear test, 0.28 µm after the test). SEM observations did not show significant modification of the surface morphology. Tetragonal to monoclinic phase ratio was measured by XRD before and after wear test to evaluate stability of tetragonal ZrO2 phase. Minimal conversion of tetragonal to monoclinic phase was found from 5.4 to 8%. Although this study is a preliminary evaluation limited to in vitro tests, it provides novel pre-clinical indications about the potential of ceramic TKR femoral components. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomaterials Used in Clinical Practice and Their Tribological Behaviours Assessed In Vitro, In Silico, and In Vivo)
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11 pages, 2028 KiB  
Article
Wear Simulation of Ceramic-on-Crosslinked Polyethylene Hip Prostheses: A New Non-Oxide Silicon Nitride versus the Gold Standard Composite Oxide Ceramic Femoral Heads
by Makiko Yorifuji, Saverio Affatato, Toshiyuki Tateiwa, Yasuhito Takahashi, Takaaki Shishido, Elia Marin, Matteo Zanocco, Wenliang Zhu, Giuseppe Pezzotti and Kengo Yamamoto
Materials 2020, 13(13), 2917; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13132917 - 29 Jun 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3128
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to compare the wear behavior of ceramic-on-vitamin-E-diffused crosslinked polyethylene (Vit-E XLPE) hip bearings employing the gold standard oxide ceramic, zirconia (ZrO2)-toughened alumina (Al2O3) (ZTA, BIOLOX®delta) and a [...] Read more.
The purpose of the present study was to compare the wear behavior of ceramic-on-vitamin-E-diffused crosslinked polyethylene (Vit-E XLPE) hip bearings employing the gold standard oxide ceramic, zirconia (ZrO2)-toughened alumina (Al2O3) (ZTA, BIOLOX®delta) and a new non-oxide ceramic, silicon nitride (Si3N4, MC2®). In vitro wear test was performed using a 12-station hip joint simulator. The test was carried out by applying the kinematic inputs and outputs as recommended by ISO 14242-1:2012. Vitamin-E-diffused crosslinked polyethylene (Vit-E XLPE) acetabular liners (E1®) were coupled with Ø28-mm ZTA and Si3N4 femoral heads. XLPE liner weight loss over 5 million cycles (Mc) of testing was compared between the two different bearing couples. Surface topography, phase contents, and residual stresses were analyzed by contact profilometer and Raman microspectroscopy. Vit-E XLPE liners coupled with Si3N4 heads produced slightly lower wear rates than identical liners with ZTA heads. The mean wear rates (corrected for fluid absorption) of liners coupled with ZTA and Si3N4 heads were 0.53 ± 0.24 and 0.49 ± 0.23 mg/Mc after 5 Mc of simulated gait, respectively. However, after wear testing, the ZTA heads retained a smoother topography and showed fewer surface stresses than the Si3N4 ones. Note that no statistically significant differences were found in the above comparisons. This study suggests that the tribochemically formed soft silica layer on the Si3N4 heads may have reduced friction and slightly lowered the wear of the Vit-E XLPE liners. Considering also that the toughness of Si3N4 is superior to ZTA, the present wear data represent positive news in the future development of long-lasting hip components. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomaterials Used in Clinical Practice and Their Tribological Behaviours Assessed In Vitro, In Silico, and In Vivo)
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Graphical abstract

12 pages, 2640 KiB  
Article
Knee Wear Assessment: 3D Scanners Used as a Consolidated Procedure
by Saverio Affatato, Maria Cristina Valigi and Silvia Logozzo
Materials 2020, 13(10), 2349; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13102349 - 20 May 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 2368
Abstract
It is well known that wear occurring in polyethylene menisci is a significant clinical problem. At this regard, wear tests on biomaterials medical devices are performed in order to assess their pre-clinical performance in terms of wear, durability, resistance to fatigue, etc. The [...] Read more.
It is well known that wear occurring in polyethylene menisci is a significant clinical problem. At this regard, wear tests on biomaterials medical devices are performed in order to assess their pre-clinical performance in terms of wear, durability, resistance to fatigue, etc. The objective of this study was to assess the wear of mobile total knee polyethylene inserts after an in vitro wear test. In particular, the wear behavior of mobile bearing polyethylene knee configurations was investigated using a knee joint wear simulator. After the completion of the wear test, the polyethylene mobile menisci were analyzed through a consolidated procedure by using 3D optical scanners, in order to evaluate the 3D wear distribution on the prosthesis surface, wear depths, wear rates, amount of material loss and contact areas. The results in terms of wear rates and wear volumes were compared with results of gravimetric tests, finding equivalent achievements. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomaterials Used in Clinical Practice and Their Tribological Behaviours Assessed In Vitro, In Silico, and In Vivo)
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