Older people will no longer have to suffer
Today’s hip implants only last 10-15 years because they wear out. In combination with the increases in the lifespan of the population, more and more new operations are required where another hip implant is inserted which increases the risk of complications as well as incurring greater costs for society. A student at KTH has now examined a new metal material as a base for hip implants, and the result is encouraging.
“Better implants would not only alleviate the suffering of patients, they would also result in a reduction in the costs of care,” says Maysam Nezafati, who recently finished his degree project, an International Master’s degree in Materials and Process Design at KTH.
He also states that there is a demand for implants that last longer. This is something that he took up in his degree project where he investigated the properties of a new metallic material, bulk metallic glass. Maysam Nezafati’s studies show that there are good reasons to believe that the new material works well for hip implants, as the results are promising.
The reason for this is that the demands made on metallic materials used for orthopaedic implants are, to say the least, high. Corrosion, mechanical properties and biocompatibility, i.e. that the material in the implant must work together with the body’s tissues and fluids, are just a few factors that come into play. This is where bulk metallic glass works better than the materials used today and in his study, Maysam Nezafati compared bulk metallic glass with stainless steel and cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloys.
It could even be so that the corrosion of hip implant materials, such as steel, lead to secondary health problems for the patient when both the mechanical failure may occur and metallic ions are released.
Hip implants are one of the most common surgical procedures in hospitals in Sweden and abroad. That is why Maysam Nezafati’s findings are important. But he is not alone in studying bulk metallic glasses, a student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim in cooperation with Maysam Nezafati, has also been studying the wear properties of the same bulk metallic glass alloy. Even here, with good results.
Maysam Nezafati adds that he intends to continue with his implant project and take a doctoral degree.
The study is part of a collaborative effort between the Department of Materials Science at KTH, the corrosion and metals research institute Swerea AB, FOI - the Defence Research Agency, Karolinska Institutet and the Institute for Materials Technology in Trondheim, Norway.
For more information, contact Maysam Nezafati at 08-790 83 48 or maysam@kth.se.
Peter Larsson