Chapter 34 - Coating materials for artificial knee joint components

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the coating materials used for artificial knee joint components. The section on artificial knee designs describes shortly the different generations used for knee replacement. While the first generation has been largely abandoned, the second- and third-generation designs are still available. These later designs are evaluated for their mechanical and clinical performance. Stability factors used to assess each design were also discussed. In addition, the commonly used materials as coatings such as titanium-nitride, tantalum, diamond-like carbon, nanocrystalline diamond, graphite-like carbon, hydroxyapatite, and polyether ether ketone were reported in this chapter along with the commonly used techniques for coating the different components of artificial knee joints.