Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p>Nowadays, with increasing average age - and thus an increase in active years - and the heightened pace of life in our cruel, fast-paced world, our bodies are subjected to extreme stress for ever-longer periods. Unfortunately, this lifestyle does not go away without a trace - it can cause damage to everything from our skeletal system to our nervous system, and our joints are no exception - which is why arthroplasty procedures are becoming increasingly popular. Arthroplasty is one of the most successful surgical procedures, which seeks to re-condition, replace - in some cases remove - the joint surfaces to improve the function of the system or at least preserve its current status. The most common form of arthroplasty is the implantation of joint endoprostheses. These devices have a finite lifespan, like all engineering structures, so their replacement at certain intervals, by means of revision surgery, is essential. The prostheses removed in this way carry a wealth of essential information about their design, their manufacturer and even their user and implantor, which can be incorporated into the design of the next generation of systems using reverse engineering, thus moving closer to the development of the "gold standard" implant. The topic of our article is the analysis and exploration of the failure processes of hip, knee, and shoulder implants removed by revision. We will build a model that adequately represents the wear and tear processes of different types of prostheses, with the help of which the wear and tear processes can be determined and predicted, and the strengths and weaknesses of the constructs can be determined. We consider it essential to distinguish between the different types of damage since, without a comprehensive knowledge of their extent, it is impossible to prevent them effectively. Systems grouped according to implant type and implant modality were examined using 3-dimensional imaging. We determined the degradation of the polymer components caused by use, observing to distinguish between damage caused by revision surgery and damage caused by transportation and storage. During our measurements, particular care was taken to identify the exact extent of creep and wear in order to make the best possible recommendations for modifications to existing systems.</jats:p>