About Ultracoat®
ULTRACOAT® is a result 15 years of research, development and clinical evaluation offers a thoroughly tested coating. Not all titanium surface treatments are the same. It is imperative to utilize a coating that has been thoroughly tested.
- ULTRACOAT® on the articulating surfaces to reduce the wear and tear
- PVD Coated TiN Ceramic having 8-10 microns thick coating hardness , smoother
- Superior wet ability than Co-Cr
- Ceramic Coating provides a significantly better environment for biological fixation than uncoated metal surfaces
- The durability of TiN coating has been demonstrated by a 48 million cycle test of femoral resurfacing components.
Design Rationale
The recent introduction of a "gender specific" femoral component has raised the issue of the variation in the medial/lateral to anterior/posterior aspect ratio of the distal knee and other geometry variations. Although the aspect ratio of the average female knee is slightly less than the male knee, the difference is small compared to the individual variations found in males as well as females. The difference in gender related aspect ratio seems insufficient to justify a gender specific knee except, perhaps, for marketing reasons.
Experience has shown, however, that the differences in individual variation are sufficient to justify a set of narrower femoral components for use in both male and female patients where the standard width femoral component is too wide for a particular patient. As a result Buechel & Pappas has developed a set of "Narrow" femoral components, which are 7.6% narrower than the standard components, for such use.
The B-PTM TiN Coated Femoral Component avoids such gender specific characteristics, such as a lower femoral flange and lack of normal axial rotation, of some of the competitive designs. A lower femoral flange increases the risk of patellar subluxation, a problem much more common in females than in males. The inability to provide normal axial rotation generates unnecessary forces on the knee implants and bone-/implant interfaces increasing the risk of wear and loosening.
