Aggressive granulomatous inflamation is associated with prolific wear particle generation. UHMWPE particles have the advantage that they do not leach out ions, but particles generated from UHMWPE wear surfaces often result in debris in the bioactive size range. Metallic particles are often found to be fine, but have the disadvantage of leaching out ions, which then cause a separate cytotoxic response.
Elastomers such as silastic have been shown to result in wear debris in finger joint prosthesis. The particles may also degrade having other detrimental effects. Ceramic wear surfaces also result in fine wear debris and the particles are relatively inert compared to metallic debris.
