St. Gobain Desmarquest

These restrictions notwithstanding, yttria-stabilised zirconia polycrystal (Y-TZP) femoral heads presently make up about 25% of the total annual number of hip joint implants in Europe and 8% in the United States. Between 1985 and 2001 more than 400000 Y-TZP femoral heads were implanted worldwide. However, safety concerns continue to plague zirconia femoral heads. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA, 2013) issued a safety alert in August 2013 to orthopaedic surgeons that the French manufacturer St Gobain Desmarquest had recalled an unimplanted inventory of zirconia femoral heads that were found to fracture at a higher rate than expected in some patients 13-27 months after implantation. 

Zirconia initially enjoyed a low overall failure rate, similar to alumina, until the events of 2001 forced St. Gobain Desmarquest to suspend its international sales of orthopedic ceramic products. For example, in one of the groups of recalled zirconia femoral heads, a total of 227 in vivo fractures were reported for a series of 683 manufactured heads, corresponding to a fracture rate of 33%, according to the data made pubhcly available by St. Gobain [151],... 

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