Medical Device Testing

Orthopedic Implants: Orthopedic implants are mounted to the skeletal system of the human body for various purposes, such as, supporting bone, replacing bone or joints, and reattaching tendons or ligaments. Combined dynamic loading and biochemical attack make the environment of orthopedic implants especially prone to failure. Dynamic loading in in the presence of body liquids can cause wear and fretting corrosion on screw heads and plate holes. Bone screws fracture as a result of mechanical damage during insertion or removal, or by fatigue.

To make matters more troublesome, the human body environment can become corrosive to orthopedic material, introducing various forms of corrosion. Rejection of this nature is usually a result of improper materials selection as can be seen in the chromium steels, low grade-austenitic stainless steels, and sensitized stainless steels that were used extensively 20 to 40 years ago. MATCO can provide full materials selection/testing and failure analysis. If there is a problem in the fabrication process, such as the presence of surface oil residue. MATCO can identify the contaminant and help you to develop the procedure to eliminate the problem altogether.

Surgical Devices: Surgical devices must be handled with the utmost care and in the most sterile conditions to prevent mechanical damage or contamination. This is particularly important because the human eye does not easily notice damage. If you suspect mishandling, the device should be sent to one of our analysts immediately for examination.