Abstract
Decades of research have been dedicated to understanding the corrosion mechanisms of metal based implanted prosthetics utilized in modern surgical procedures. Focused primarily on mechanically driven wear, current fretting and crevice corrosion investigations have yet to precisely replicate the complex chemical composition of corrosion products recovered from patients’ periprosthetic tissue. This work specifically targets the creation of corrosion products at the metal on metal junction utilized in modular hip prosthetics. Moreover, this manuscript serves as an initial investigation into the potential interaction between implanted CoCrMo metal alloy and low amplitude electrical oscillation, similar in magnitude to those which may develop from ambient electromagnetic radiation. It is believed that introduction of such an electrical oscillation may be able to initiate electrochemical reactions between the metal and surrounding fluid, forming the precursor to secondary wear particles, without mechanically eroding the metal’s natural passivation layer. Here, we show that a low magnitude electrical oscillation (≤ 200 mV) in the megahertz frequency (106 Hz) range is capable of initiating corrosion on implanted CoCrMo without the addition of mechanical wear. Specifically, a 50 MHz, 200 mVpp sine wave generates corrosion products comprising of Cr, P, Ca, O, and C, which is consistent with previous literature on the analysis of failed hip prosthetics. These findings demonstrate that mechanical wear may not be required to initiate the production of chemically complex corrosion products.
Highlights
Decades of research have been dedicated to understanding the corrosion mechanisms of metal based implanted prosthetics utilized in modern surgical procedures
The introduction of the Morse taper has allowed for the increase modularity in hip prosthetics, generations of hip prosthetics utilizing this type of modular junction, in which metal is in direct contact with metal, suffer from severe inflammatory reactions of the periprosthetic soft tissue, which lead to chronic pain and/or implant failure[6,7,8]
Phagocytosis of corrosion products and macrophage necrosis is accompanied by a perivascular lymphocytic infiltration, which is followed by soft tissue necrosis[9]
Summary
Decades of research have been dedicated to understanding the corrosion mechanisms of metal based implanted prosthetics utilized in modern surgical procedures. The introduction of the Morse taper has allowed for the increase modularity in hip prosthetics, generations of hip prosthetics utilizing this type of modular junction, in which metal is in direct contact with metal, suffer from severe inflammatory reactions of the periprosthetic soft tissue, which lead to chronic pain and/or implant failure[6,7,8] This reaction appears to be initiated by the interaction between corrosion products generated at the metal interfaces and macrophages in the periprosthetic tissue. We show that such electrical charging and discharging of a typical CoCrMo metal sample within simulated synovial fluid has the ability to initiate a deposition growth on the metal’s surface, by which the base elements of the underlying alloy are reacted into complex chemical species at the surface This electrochemically driven corrosion can accurately replicate the chemical composition of the corrosion products found near failed implants without requiring mechanical degradation of the metal’s passivation layer. It is demonstrated that if the implanted metal sample is shielded from electrical activity, the deposition matching recovered corrosion products does not appear to occur
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