Less Implant Wear

Laboratory testing indicates that metal hip implants are designed to wear less and last longer than traditional implants made of plastic. Another concern for the young, active patient is the length of time his or her implant may last before it wears out.

Mechanical test data shows that hip implants, such as the CONSERVE^® BFH^® Hip, that are comprised solely from metal components wear better and last longer than traditional hip implants that are made of metal and plastic. The plastic piece of a traditional hip implant wears away over time due to friction more quickly than metal implants. When that happens, the odds of possibly experiencing implant failure rises for patients.

Traditional hip implants that allow less range of motion than Wright's CONSERVE^® BFH^® Hip also expose the patient to a higher risk of implant impingement (meaning the neck of the implant and the shell of the implant meet). When this occurs, dislocation is likely. Wright's CONSERVE^® BFH^® Hip is designed to reduce the risk of this problem, due to its larger size and greater range of motion.

What Makes Wright's Metal Hip Implants Better Than Other Implants?
In addition to the design of the CONSERVE^® BFH^® Hip, Wright also has specifically developed an advanced metal technology, A-CLASS^® Metal, to also reduce implant wear and the subsequent release of metal ions.

This optional feature makes Wright's metal-on-metal implants superior to others on the market today as this patent-pending metal differs from competitor's designs by featuring a 90% reduction in initial wear and 68% reduction in lifetime wear of the implant.*

A-CLASS^® Metal from Wright features run-in wear rates up to 90% less than other metal implants.** Run-in wear, or initial wear of a hip implant, is the phase of metal-on-metal articulation that produces the greatest amount of metal ion release, or what some engineers refer to as debris.

*Data on file.
**Data on file. A-CLASS^® Metal wear data was obtained using a hip simulator, which mimics the movement on the implant as if it is implanted inside the body, as compared to a traditional Wright metal-on-metal bearing.