Elbow joint replacement
Probably the most used joint besides knees are probably elbows. The elbow joint is primarily used to help position, and rotate the the arms, and hand. With that, primarily over the years the wear and tear of the ligaments, and bone structure of the three bones (Humerus, Radial, and Ulna) can lead to Osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that is caused from the ages around fiftey.. The wear and tear part comes in when the cartilage that houses the joint wears away; the bones are then exposed to each other and a bone to bone contact that becomes very painful. It can also come into an earlier age if the ligaments and tendons that surrounds the cartilage is torn, or if the bones have major fractures The
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The implant has the four parts: the humerus cup, the rational ball used for the radius, the radius cap, and the ulna cap. The implant has a housed area that is used to hold the ball that will help rotate against the radius cap giving you maybe more freedom to rotate the arm more than before. The Humerus, and Ulna both are drilled into the bone after the necessary area of the bone has been removed to help stabilize them; they will be able to move up and down with each other as a hinge. The most material used is titanium since it is light, and strong, however when metal rubs against each other, they will also wear out. That is why the implant will mostly use metal-on-ceramic; each surface that will come into contact with other surface will have a ceramic called Alumina . Alumina has been used in many different implants, and is a trusted ceramic for this job. The ball, as well as the radius cap that will be used to rotate the arm will also be made of alumina since ceramic-on-ceramic is being used more frequently due to the perks of how durable ceramics