Fretting crevice corrosion of stainless steel stem–CoCr femoral head connections: Comparisons of materials, initial moisture, and offset length

Modular tapers continue to be used in a wide variety of orthopedic implants. In this study, stainless steel (ASTM F‐1568) femoral hip stems combined with Co‐Cr‐Mo alloy heads (SS/CoCr) were tested in an in vitro fretting corrosion test set‐up to assess the propensity for mechanically assisted corrosion. Three different aspects of the modular design were evaluated in this study: (1) material combination compared to CoCr/CoCr, (2) wet versus dry assembly for SS/CoCr couples, and (3) 0‐ and 6‐mm head offset for SS/CoCr couples. Fretting corrosion tests over a range of cyclic loads up to 3300 N were performed, and continuous cyclic loading at 3300 N for 1 M cycles were performed on each group ( n = 5). Fretting micromotion was measured as a function of cyclic load on select couples to detect the nature and extent of motion present. The results showed that SS/CoCr couples were more susceptible to fretting corrosion than CoCr/CoCr couples, that dry assembly does not prevent fretting corrosion from taking place but raises the onset load, and that 6‐mm offset heads had higher visual evidence of fretting damage but showed mixed statistical results in terms of onset loads and OCP shifts and currents compared to the 0‐mm offset samples. Current and voltage excursions over 1million cycles tended to diminish towards their unloaded control levels but did not fully recover until cyclic loading ceased. Micromotion measurements indicated fretting motions in the range of 10–25 μm where 0‐mm heads tended to piston on the trunion, while 6 mm heads tended to rock. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 2009