Total knee arthroplasty highly crosslinked UHMWPE

Prevalence of Highly Crosslinked UHMWPE in Total Knee Arthroplasty... 

Highly crosslinked UHMWPE is now the most widely used alternative to conventional UHMWPE. Today, four out of the five major orthopedic manufacturers offer highly crosslinked UHMWPE for total knee arthroplasty (Prolong, Zimmer, Inc. X3, Stryker Orthopaedics XLK, DePuy Orthopedics and EPoly, Biomet, Inc.). However, there is not universal agreement in the clinical community that highly crosslinked... 

Wang A, Yau SS, Essner A, Herrera L, Manley M, Dumbleton JH. A highly crosslinked UHMWPE for CR and PS total knee arthroplasties. J Arthroplasty 2008 23(4) 559-66. 

UHMWPE wear continues to be an important factor in the long-term survivability of orthopedic implants [1-3]. As established in Chapter 23, periprosthetic osteolysis occurs secondary to the generation of UHMWPE wear debris in total hip arthroplasty (THA) [1, 2, 4]. In the last decade, efforts have been made to increase the wear resistance of UHMWPE [1, 5, 6], Highly crosslinked UHMWPE (Chapters 13 and 14) was introduced in THA 10 years ago and more recently in total knee arthroplasty. UHMWPE wear volume and wear patterns must be fiiUy evaluated to understand historic UHMWPE wear processes to evaluate the efficacy of highly crosslinked UHMWPE and to analyze future UHMWPE formulations that attempt to improve the clinical performance of UHMWPE. 

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