The corrosion fatigue properties of surgical implants in a living body.

Fatigue fracture of artificial implants in the human body, caused by the repeated application of stress, is well documented. It is known that the fatigue strength of implant materials decreases when they are exposed under in vivo corrosion conditions. There are, however, no investigations concerning the effect of body fluids on the fatigue characteristics of commonly used biomaterials. Accordingly, fatigue tests on machined stainless-steel AISI 316, and COP alloy rods have been conducted in the right lower leg of rabbit. These specimens were pierced through the hole drilled at the middle of the tibial bone. A cyclic tensile stress of frequency 5 or 10 Hz was applied to the rods. From the results, it was found that the fatigue strength at 5 x 10(6) cycles for AISI 316 under the in vivo environment was 680 MPa compared to 830 MPa in air and similarly for COP alloy, was 680 MPa in the living body compared to 800 MPa in air. These remarkable changes in fatigue strength associated with the in vivo environments are considered to be due to the corrosive action of body fluids on the biomaterials.