Acoustic Vibration and Mechanical In Vivo Analysis of the Hip Joint After a Total Hip Arthroplasty

The major complications following total hip replacement (THA) are implant loosening, dislocation, instability, fracture and infection. It is hypothesized that vibration, in the range of the resonance frequencies, may cause pain, bone degeneration and fracture. A further understanding of the physical response resulting from impact during femoral head sliding may lead to valuable insight pertaining to THA failure. Therefore, the first objective of this present study was to determine if frequencies propagating through the hip joint near resonant frequencies may lead to wear or loosening of the components. Recently, studies found that femoral head sliding, often referred to as hip separation, between the acetabulum cup and the femoral head does occur, which may also play a role in complications observed with THA today, but a the effects of hip separation and the causes of its occurrence has not been studied as jet. Therefore, the second objective of this study was to determine if a sound sensor, externally attached, could be used to correlate impact loading sounds from femoral head sliding in the acetabular cup. Additional objective of this study was to develop a mathematical model that better simulates the in vivo loading conditions of total hip replacement patients using in vivo fluoroscopic and ground reaction data as input.