Rohan Mangesh Bhalekar

Email: r.m.bhalekar2@ncl.ac.uk

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohanbhalekar

Project supervisors

• Professor Tom Joyce
• Dr Simon Smith

Project description

Total hip replacement (THR), described as “The Operation of the Century”, is a common orthopaedic surgery. Despite many surgical advantages, explant studies of modular THRs show that material loss and debris production is not only restricted to bearing surfaces. It also arises from the taper-trunnion junction with a potential to reduce the longevity of the prosthesis.

My research focus has been wear and material loss at the taper-trunnion junction in artificial hip joints. This is an area of great contemporary debate within orthopaedics. I was the first person to use a new hip joint simulator in the School of Engineering at Newcastle University.

I have accomplished two hip simulator tests, each to 5 million cycles. The first tested the latest 4th generation ceramic-on-ceramic hip prostheses. It measured wear at both the bearing surfaces and at the taper-trunnion junction.

The second tested metal-on-cross-linked polyethylene hip prostheses. Again, the test had a focus on wear at the bearing surfaces and at the taper-trunnion junction.

These in-vitro studies show, for the first time, the necessity of measuring taper-trunnion junction wear in pre-clinical testing to fully understand the mechanisms of material loss. They have highlighted the need to add extra testing to the current ISO14242-1.

Publications

• Bhalekar RM, Smith SL, Joyce TJ. Hip simulator testing of the taper-trunnion junction and bearing surfaces of contemporary modular metal-on-cross-linked polyethylene hip prostheses. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials 2019, (ePub ahead of Print).
• Bhalekar RM, Smith SL, Joyce TJ. In vitro wear at the bearing surfaces of BIOLOX delta ceramic-on ceramic hips. In: MeDe Innovation Fifth Annual Conference. 2018, Sheffield, UK.
• Bhalekar RM, Smith SL, Joyce TJ. In vitro wear at the taper-trunnion junction of BIOLOX delta ceramic-on ceramic hips shown in a multi-station hip simulator. In: 31st Annual Congress of the International Society for Technology in Arthroplasty (ISTA 2018). 2018, Queen Elizabeth II Centre, London: ISTA.
• Bhalekar RM, Smith SL, Joyce TJ. Taper-trunnion junction and bearing surface wear measurement of metal-on-cross-linked polyethylene total hip replacements in a multi-station hip simulator. In: 31st Annual Congress of the International Society for Technology in Arthroplasty (ISTA 2018). 2018, Queen Elizabeth II Centre, London: ISTA.
• Bhalekar RM, Smith SL, Joyce TJ. Wear at the taper-trunnion junction of contemporary ceramic-on-ceramic hips shown in a multistation hip simulator. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials 2019, 107(4), 1199-1209.

Interests

Bioengineering, biomaterials, biotribology, joint replacement, medical devices, retrieval analysis

Qualifications

• MSc Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering (University College London, UK)
• Bachelor of Engineering – Biomedical (University of Mumbai, India)