Effect of an accelerated aging protocol on viscoelastic properties of UHMWPE.

The values of two viscoelastic properties (storage modulus and loss angle) of four sets of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene specimens were obtained. Two sets comprised specimens that had been sterilized (using gamma radiation in air or ethylene oxide gas) while the other two sets comprised specimens that were sterilized and then exposed to an accelerated aging protocol that, in the literature, has been proposed as simulating 5 years of real-time shelf aging. An analysis of the present results from the four specimen sets and those obtained, in a previous study by the present author, on specimens machined from real-time shelf aged tibial inserts suggests that the claim made for the accelerated aging protocol may be conservative.