BIRC
Research type
Research Study
Full title
University of Birmingham-Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Orthopaedic Implant Retrievals Centre
IRAS ID
357177
Contact name
Michael G Bryant
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Over 200,000 joint replacement surgeries happen per year in the UK. Around one in ten are to remove and replace a failed or painful implant. Doctors will collect X-rays and patient data, but the implant is thrown away. A removed implant is now called an explant. We could learn a great deal about how these devices perform by looking at these explants. This information is much more valuable than the discarded parts and medical grade alloys. Implant analysis could show us how implants fail and highlight trends, inform device design, and boost patient care.
Our solution is to create an Implant Retrieval Centre to bring together surgeons, engineers, and researchers. It will be a partnership between the School of Engineering and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital (ROH) in Birmingham. This will be a unique service thanks to the expertise at UoB, plus recent investment in high-tech analysis tools. ROH are also a known as a centre of excellence in the field. We will collect failed implants at the point of surgery to measure implant breakdown, wear, and study why they failed.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 4
REC reference
25/WS/0111
Date of REC Opinion
1 Sep 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion