A novel primary stability test method for artificial acetabular shells considering vertical load during level walking and shell position.

Uncemented acetabular shell primary stability is essential for optimal clinical outcomes. Push-out testing, rotation testing, and lever-out testing are major evaluation methods of primary stability between the shell and bone. However, these test methods do not consider shell loads during daily activity and shell installation angle. This study proposes a novel evaluation method of acetabular shell primary stability considering load during level walking and acetabular installation angles such as inclination and anteversion. To achieve this, a novel primary stability test apparatus was designed with a shell position of 40° acetabular inclination and 20° anteversion. The vertical load, corresponding to walking load, was set to 3 kN according to ISO 14242-1, which is the wear test standard for artificial hip joints. The vertical load was applied by an air cylinder controlled by a pressure-type electro-pneumatic proportional valve, with the vertical load value monitored by a load cell. Torque was measured when angular displacement was applied in the direction of extension during the application of vertical load. For comparison, we also measured torque using the traditional lever-out test. The novel primary stability test yielded significantly higher primary stabilities; 5.4 times greater than the lever-out test results. The novel primary stability test failure mode was more similar to the clinical failure than the traditional lever-out test. It is suggested that this novel primary stability test method, applying physiological walking loads and extension motions to the acetabular shell, better reflects in vivo primary stability than the traditional lever-out test.