The effects of irradiation and EtO-treatment on ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene acetabular cups following accelerated aging: Degradation of mechanical properties and morphology changes during hip simulator tests

Abstract: The present study was aimed at investigating the effects of the sterilization method and accelerated aging on the wear and morphology of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene. In a first test, gamma- and EtO-sterilized acetabular cups were tested in a hip joint simulator for two million cycles. After the test, the cups underwent an accelerated aging treatment (80°C, 4 weeks in air furnace) and were newly tested for another three million cycles. Wear was evaluated by gravimetric measurements, morphology by micro-Raman spectroscopy. During the first test, the EtO-sterilized cups underwent a significantly higher wear than the gamma-sterilized ones (62 and 30mg/million cycles, respectively). No significant crystallinity changes were observed. Upon accelerated aging, the crystallinity increase of the gamma-sterilized cups was more pronounced than for the EtO-sterilized cups, due to chain scission and oxygen incorporation. In the second test, the wear rate of EtO-sterilized cups decreased to 38mg/million cycles, while for gamma-irradiated cups it increased to 84mg/million cycles. At the same time, the latter cups underwent significant increases in temperature and crystallinity, due to the higher friction. For the EtO-sterilized cups a significant decrease in crystallinity was observed, due to the occurrence of an orthorhombic→monoclinic phase transformation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]