The Challenge

Following surgery, proximal loosening and stress shielding can occur as a result of normal activity and can lead to abnormal loading profiles. Therefore, the real-life environment and loads that the specimen will experience while in the body need to be replicated in testing. Hip femoral fatigue testing can be challenging due to the importance of precisely embedding the specimen. The fixture needs to be capable of supporting compression, bending, and torsional stresses in order to meet ISO 7206 standards. The high-frequency rates of these tests also pose a challenge as they can cause the specimen to heat up beyond an acceptable limit.