"This material wears at-and we've measured it-0.7 of one millimeter in 10 years. So there's enough plastic in there to last 40 or 50 years" Doctor Thomas P. Sculco, Surgeon-in-Chief at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, goes in depth explaining the materials, structure, and function of the hip prosthesis.

Dr. Sculco

Then when the socket goes in the femur goes in, then basically thats how the hip links together.



This is the socket. And you can see on the back of the socket, this is also titanium, has all these little shiny areas, and these are beads. And there are probably 5 million small beads on the back surface of that socket. And then the bone will grow in between all those beads. In this case this is a plastic insert. Very very wear resistant. This material wears at, and we've measured it, .07 of one millimeter in 10 years. So there's enough plastic in there to last 40 or 50 years. So then when the socket goes in the femur goes in, then basically thats how the hip links together. And so the hip then moves as a normal hip would, and the soft tissues or muscles then incorporate around this device to give it stability. And then are attached to the bone which makes the prosthesis work.