Knee replacement surgery is a potential option to relieve symptoms for those afflicted by arthritis. However, the materials introduced into the body may produce wear debris which can lead to inflammation of the surrounding tissue and sometimes require replacement of the implant. To better understand the mechanism behind the generation of this wear debris and ultimately the failure of the implant, one of our goals is to determine the composition of the wear debris.
We test for the presence of metals in samples taken from synovial fluid using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry. We also test for bacterial adhesion to various zirconium alloys with X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy as a means of determining the biocompatibility of these materials which are now being used as alternatives for the more common CoCrMo and Ti6Al4V orthopedic alloys.