Polyethylene wear debris and tissue reactions in knee as compared to hip replacement prostheses.

Differences in bearing surface conformity and wear mechanisms suggest that the polyethylene (PE) wear debris generated by total knee replacement (TKR) prostheses should be different than that in total hip replacement prostheses (THR). To address this issue, PE wear debris and the cellular response in periprosthetic tissues from 19 failed TKRs was compared to that from 24 failed THRs using polarized light microscopy and a semiquantitative grading system. The foreign-body inflammatory reaction in the THR case was characterized by plump macrophages with a diffuse cytoplasmic birefringence when examined under polarized light, indicating the presence of multiple submicron particles of PE. The majority of PE particles were less than 1 mum in size and only a small fraction of the total were greater than 10 mum. The foreign-body inflammatory reaction in the TKR cases was characterized by giant cells with fewer macrophages. In the TKR specimens, the size range of PE particles was broader than in the hips. PE particles between 2 and 20 mum were frequent in TKR specimens; particles less than 1 mum in length were less common than in the THR specimens. Diffuse cytoplasmic birefringence was not a characteristic of the TKR cases. These histologic differences were so consistently distinct that the source of the specimen (i.e., from a THR or TKR) could be blindly determined by light microscopy.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)