Hop on over to our hip stand

Imperial researcher talks on video about working to improve hip replacements - <em>News</em>

By Lucy Goodchild
Friday 25 June 2010

A giant 3D pelvis and real-life hip replacements are some of the props researchers are showing the public this week, at an exhibit explaining why some hip replacements fail and how scientists are working to improve them in the future. The exhibit, from researchers at Imperial College London, is part of the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, which opens to the public today on London’s Southbank.

The exhibit will explain the work researchers are doing using a high-intensity x-ray beam to figure out why some hip replacements fail. They will be exhibiting with Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron science facility, where they carry out some of this x-ray research.

Around 70,000 people have a hip replacement operation every year in Britain and there are several types of hip that surgeons use for replacements.

Mr Alister Hart and his colleagues at Imperial College London are investigating metal-on-metal hips, which can sometimes fail due to wear on the replacement joint. This wear can result in nano-sized particles of metal being released into the surrounding tissues, causing the patient to suffer from pain due to inflamed tissues around the hip.

The research team is studying these failed hip joints in minute detail, using extremely intense x-ray beams to locate and identify the tiny metal fragments that are dispersed into the tissues surrounding the hip. They do this by removing the failed hip joint and replacing it with a new one, then analysing the tissue using the x-rays. They also produce 3D images of the wear on the joint to compliment their work at Diamond, enabling them to understand both the biological and mechanical factors that determine hip replacement failure. Armed with this information, they hope to develop new hip joints that work in harmony with the body.

The team are taking actual hip replacements that visitors can handle to the Royal Society event, which runs from 25 June to 4 July 2010. They are also exhibiting a 3D model of a human pelvis and hip replacement from one of their patients, eight times the average size, to help them describe their work to the public.

According to Mr Hart, from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, the high-powered x-ray beams at Diamond’s synchrotron are essential to the research, as they can give the team a unique, detailed, 3D view of the hips and of the metal particles, which are just 40 nanometres in diameter – about 2500 times thinner than a human hair.

Mr Hart explains: “Painful hips can be very debilitating and can have a dramatic effect on people’s lives. Most people know someone who has had a hip replacement – over one million hip replacement operations are carried out around the world every year. Each different kind of artificial hip joint has advantages and disadvantages; unfortunately, the metal-on-metal hips we investigate can cause painful inflammation in the tissues around the hip.

“We’re really excited to have the opportunity to talk to people at this Exhibition about our work and to help them find out more about hip replacements. Even though many of the people who visit our stand will have hip replacements themselves, very few people will have actually seen one – and we have a giant pelvis with a hip replacement to show them!”

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Mr Hart is also a hip surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. His research forms part of the Academic Health Science Centre, a unique partnership between the Trust and the College that aims to improve the quality of life for patients and populations by taking new discoveries and translating them into new therapies and treatments quicker than ever before.

In the video (right), Mr Alister Hart explains his research and gives us a tour of his exhibit.

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