Can metal levels be used to monitor metal-on-metal hip arthroplasties?

In this review, the prospects for using blood, serum, and/or urine metal levels for monitoring the performance of metal-on-metal hip arthroplasty systems are explored. This approach does have Substantial potential for serving this function; however, the methodology is technically challenging and the interpretation of the values requires an extensive database with correlative clinical information, At this time, it is premature to recommend metal concentration analysis on a rountine clinical basis for patients with metal-on-metal total hip arthroplastics. Nonetheless, metal concentration analysis remains a powerful research tool in the evaluation of metal-on-metal hip arthroplasly systems. Key words: cobalt chromium alloy, total hip arthroplasty, metal-on-metal, metal ions. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.