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My sister had a total hip replacement and ended up with a squeaky joint that can't be oiled to get rid of the sound. I'm going to have a hip replacement, too. Should I ask for a different kind of implant? Her's is made of ceramic. I understand there are titanium implants available, too.
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An investigation at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania might just have an answer to that question. They compared results for patients receiving two different designs of a ceramic-on-ceramic implant.
Group one got an implant that had a special coating on the stem made of a titanium-aluminum-vanadium alloy. The stem was shaped with a C-taper neck and had a wide, thick midsection. The stem portion of a hip replacement fits down inside the long shaft of the femur (thigh bone). Group two was given an implant with a stem made of a different combination of metals: titanium-molybdenum-zirconium-iron alloy. The design was a V-shape instead of a C-shape and the midsection wasn't as thick as in group one.
Statistical analysis showed that patients with the thinner V-shaped neck and titanium-molybdenum-zirconium-iron stem were seven times more likely to develop a squeak. This stem is more flexible with a lower frequency of resonance. Vibrations created by the ceramic-on-ceramic movement are amplified (made louder) when there's a lower frequency. And evidently, the oscillations can be amplified enough to generate a sound that can be heard.
The authors concluded by saying patients don't have to give up the good quality of motion provided by ceramic-on-ceramic hip replacements. Surgeons just have to avoid using implants with the V-40 neck and choose the stiffer, C-taper stem instead. They should also make sure the materials are not made of the titanium-molybdenum-zirconium-iron alloy.
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