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Wear

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Biomedical Materials

Abstract

Wear is a critical issue for prostheses, implants, and other medical devices. Wear may lead to significant loss of material and/or failure of a medical device. For example, wear and wear-related damage commonly cause failure of hip, knee, and other orthopedic prostheses [1]. Even a relatively small amount of wear can lead to significant degradation of function for some medical devices. For example, wear debris generated from degradation of a joint prosthesis can result in a biological process known as osteolysis (bone resorption), which can cause loosening of the prosthesis [2, 3], Wear may also lead to failure of artificial heart valves and other medical devices that enable critical physiologic activities [4]. In this chapter, the wear mechanisms that are commonly encountered in biomedical materials and medical devices are discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University, 27695, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Chunming Jin

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, 27695, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Wei Wei

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  1. Chunming Jin
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  2. Wei Wei
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 152 MacNider Hall, 27599-1175, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Roger Narayan

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Jin, C., Wei, W. (2009). Wear. In: Narayan, R. (eds) Biomedical Materials. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-84872-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-84872-3_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-84871-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-84872-3

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