The purpose of this study was to analyze wear rates of highly cross-linked polyethylene comparing the Martell and the Roman methods in 112 total hip arthroplasties in patients 65 years and younger, with a mean follow-up of 5.7 years. The mean wear rates in the Martell and Roman methods were 0.014 ± 0.05 mm/y and 0.011 ± 0.04 mm/y when including all values and 0.043 ± 0.028 mm/y and 0.038 ± 0.02 mm/y when negative values were assumed to be zero, respectively. Both Roman and Martell methods showed similar low wear rates with negative values. The Roman method had higher precision and was more user friendly because it required less steps to measure wear, especially when comparing with the manual feature of Martell method.
The Journal of Arthroplasty
Volume 27, Issue 3, March 2012, Pages 354-357
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, New York†Ranawat Orthopaedics, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, New York‡Department of Orthopaedics, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, New York
Received 23 August 2010, Accepted 9 July 2011, Available online 15 December 2011.