Featuring Dr. Patrick Chin, MD, MBA, FRCSC, Orthopedic Surgeon
What Are Commonly Used Shoulder Replacement Materials
Duration: 2 minutes, 54 seconds

The new biomaterials that are used for
In terms of the liner, or the plastic liner, it is usually known as a high molecular weight polyurethane material. Obviously the design and evolution of these biomaterials to improve longevity or survivability of these implants.  

So the polyethylene material has had several different types of changes to it to increase the longevity. As far as the metal, the design part of it has been the most interesting.  

When we first started with the first generation shoulder implants, they were stemmed with a hemisphere to the socket. It was a plain socket whether it was pegged or keeled. And now we are moving towards a stemless type implant to preserve bone on the humeral side. And on the socket side we tend to minimize the removal of bone so we’re going to more of a pegged implant versus a keeled implant.  

And fortunately most of these implants can be cemented or uncemented. The standard treatment at this point is cemented glenoid component and uncemented stem component on the humeral side.  

So the benefits of the uncemented material obviously makes the revision of these implants much easier. Meaning that if you had to remove it, it will be potentially easier to remove.

That’s not to be confused, however, with the newer metals now that are coming out and are supposedly more biologic so it enhances bone growing into the metal or acts like bone in essence. As you can imagine, if we had to remove that, that would be quite a chore – a challenge.

Longevity of these implants are 10 to 15 years. It’s really good. Anywhere between 80 and 90 percent survivability. The whole goal of improving design and materials is to improve the survivability of these implants that hopefully translates to long term affects for our patients meaning pain relief for a longer period of time and improved function for a longer period of time.

Presenter: Dr. Patrick Chin, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Orthopaedic Surgeon