Surgical implants corrosion fatigue

Hughes, A. N., Jordan, B. A. and Orman, S., The Corrosion Fatigue Properties of Surgical Implant Materials. Third Progress Report — May 1973 , Engineering in Medicine, 7, 135-141 (1978)... 

Morita, M., Sasada, T., Hayashi, H., and Tsukamoto, Y., The Corrosion Fatigue Properties of Surgical Implants in a Living Body, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, Vol. 22, 1988, pp. 529-540. 

As the surgical techniques advance, the average age of the patient subjected to total joint replacement is decreasing and therefore the life expectancy of the implant is increasing. This obviously places more emphasis on the fatigue and corrosion resistant properties of the materials which are used in orthopaedic surgery. 

Any material used in a surgical medical application has to be proved safe and the material to be implanted for an extended period of time must be non-toxic, non-carcinogenic and unaltered by the body environment. Where a mechanical movement is involved, the implant must have good fatigue resistance and be unaffected by corrosion due to body fluids and the implanted material must not suffer a rejection process. 

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