This study was designed to determine the effect of flattening the lateral aspect of
a commercially available femoral prosthesis on its rotational stability in polymethylmethacrylate
cement. Five standard design and five laterally flattened size 7 canine femoral components
were evaluated. The stems were embedded in commercially available medical grade polymethylmethacrylate
and rotated 15° while torque and angular displacement data were collected. The stiffness,
yield and failure variables were compared between commercial and flattened stems.
None of the mechanical testing variables were statistically different between commercial
and flattened stems although all of the mean values for flattened stems were higher
(1-30%) than mean values for commercial stems. Rotational stability of a canine total
hip replacement femoral component was not significantly enhanced by the flattened
component design modification evaluated by the testing protocol in this study.
Keywords
Canine - femoral stem - torsion - total hip replacement