Minimum 5-year wear analysis of first-generation highly cross-linked polyethylene in patients 65 years and younger.

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.
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