A radical hip joint prosthesis, developed by University of Malta researchers, has outdone other conventional ones for durability during tests carried out in Germany.
This first Made in Malta total hip joint replacement is based on the principle that although ankle joints carry more weight than knee and hip joints, they suffer less arthritis.
The researchers explored the idea of mimicking the synthesis of a hip joint while basing the prosthesis on the structure of an ankle joint, Pierre Schembri Wismayer from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, told The Sunday Times of Malta.
Prof. Schembri Wismayer, together with Prof. Ing. Joseph Buhagiar, Prof. Ing. Pierluigi Mollicone and Ing. Donald Dalli from the Faculty of Engineering, are behind the MaltaHip invention. The project is the main theme for Ing. Dalli’s doctoral studies. The hip joint has been tested out on robots for the past three years. It has already registered a promising improvement over other prostheses when it comes to its outstanding wear resistance.
Obesity and longevity are among the factors that increase need of hip replacement
Prof. Schembri Wismayer said that the major benefit of this new hip replacement is that it would require being changed less often since it is worn down less easily.
If successful, MaltaHip would prove quite useful for the Maltese, considering that obesity and longevity, both of which are high in Malta, are among the factors that increase the need and frequency of hip replacement, he said.
During hip replacements, surgeons remove damaged parts of a hip joint and replace them with artificial ones that are usually made of metal, ceramic or very hard plastic. The aim of the prosthesis is to help reduce pain and improve the hip’s function.
A patent was filed in 2019 to protect the MaltaHip invention, while a local family-owned company, Empav Engineering Ltd, machined the first prototypes.
The machining excellence achieved by the company was awarded the Industrial Excellence Award in November during the 2019 Malta Engineering Excellence Awards.
The following month, the MaltaHip research team was awarded a World Intellectual Property Organisation Medal for Inventors.
The invention also placed first at 2019’s Malta Intellectual Property Awards under the Scientific Initiative category.
The project is a collaboration between the University of Malta and MCL Components Ltd, and is funded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology through Fusion: The R&I Technology Development Programme 2016.