Promotor

Co-Promotor

A Finite Element Approach for Wear Prediction at the Taper Junction in Modular Total Hip Arthroplasty.

profile of Thom Bitter

Thesis
Most common hip implants consist of multiple parts, like the stem, head and cup. During surgery the head is assembled onto the stem using a conical (tapered) interface. Due to loading of the hip implant, at the taper interface between the stem and the head, micromotions can occur, which can result in wear. Wear in hip implants could lead to problems like implant loosening from the bone, or in rare cases implant fractures.
Using an experimental set up, capable of mimicking wear marks seen on retrieved implants, in this thesis a computer model was developed with which wear at the taper interface can be predicted. This model can help identifying parameters contributing to taper wear. In this work the importance of sufficient assembly force and the need of minimizing mismatch between components is emphasized. Using this model more device, patient, and surgical parameters can be investigated for their influence on taper wear.

Biography
Thom Bitter studied mechanical engineering at the HAN University, followed by a master in mechanical engineering at Twente University, where he graduated in 2012. The research in his thesis was performed at the Orthopaedic Research Lab, within the Radboud Institute for Health Sciences.

This text is a copy from: www.radboudumc.nl/en/agenda/phd-defense-thom-bitter