Hip Joint Simulators: State of the Art

Abstract

Wear and simulator testing are complicated tasks. Controlled wear testing should not be routinely done to qualify a material, but rather to elucidate wear mechanisms. What is meant by a simulator? It generally, may be described as a machine used to test a joint replacement under conditions approximating those occurring in the human body. Simulator tests, on the other hand, can be used to conduct accelerated protocols that replicate/simu late particularly extreme conditions, thereby establishing the limits of performance for the material. Simulators vary in their level of sophistication but, however, a hip joint simulator play an important role in pre-clinical validation of biomaterials used for orthopaedic implants. Simulators are necessary to perform wear tests on biomaterials prior the implantation in the human body in order to obtain quality control and to acquire further knowledge as to the tribological processes that involve joint prostheses.