Abstract: Vitamin E stabilized highly cross-linked polyethylene (VE/HXLPE) is a antiox-idant material with low wear, and it is unknown whether the wear debris of this material can be extracted by the existing standard methods. Based on standard, this paper used acid digestion method to degrade the calf serum protein in vitro wear test, and set different sampling volume of the digestive fluid to explore its influence on the characteristics of the wear debris. The results show that changing the sampling volume in the extraction method will affect the quantity, volume and morphology distribution of the extracted debris. The quantity of VE/HXLPE wear debris extracted by the existing standard is small, and it is difficult to achieve the characterized quantity. Increasing the sampling volume of digestive fluid can effectively improve this problem, which is more suitable for extracting low-wear VE/HXLPE wear debris.

Key words: arti?cial knee joints, vitamin E stabilized highly cross-linked polyethylene, debris isolation