School of Medicine

More than 500,000 joint replacements are performed in the United States each year and this is expected to increase by at least 50% over the next 10 years [1]. Along with this increasing volume of joint replacements, the rate of revisions for failed hip and knee replacements is expected to increase at a similar rate over time. With all ‘failures’ it is important to carefully analyze the cause of failure in a continual effort to improve patient outcomes. The broad purpose of this study was to allow and facilitate ongoing research at UC San Diego into the mechanisms of failure of joint replacements in general.