Continued improved wear with an annealed highly cross-linked polyethylene.

Background Highly cross-linked polyethylene (HXLPE), created by disrupting the molecular structure of polyethylene, then through the application of heat, encourages creation of new cross-links in the process, resulting in a material with improved wear resistance. The impetuses for this new technology were the unsatisfactory wear properties and subsequent osteolysis of noncross-linked polyethylene. A 72% reduction in wear using highly cross-linked polyethylenes (HXLPE) compared with conventional polyethylene at 5 years was described previously. The longest term followup studies on HXLPE range from 2 to 6 years.