Taking new steps with the
London Implant Retrieval Centre
UCL Consultants provides
a service that balances
the commercial sensitivity
required by industry with the
goals of UCL as a research
and teaching centre.”
Professor Alister Hart,
Royal National Orthopaedic
Hospital, NHS Trust
Discipline
Arts & Humanities
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Engineering
Laws
Life & Medical Sciences
Mathematical & Physical
Sciences
Social & Historical Sciences
Grand Challenges
Global Health
Human Wellbeing
Intercultural Interaction
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Mechanism
Business Support
Consultancy
Placements
Licence
Partnerships
Public Outreach
Research Collaborations
& Studentships
Spin-outs
Student Engagement
Subsidiary
For more information see:
www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise
Shaping the future of
hip replacement surgery
Metal on Metal (MOM) hip replacements
were globally popular. Since they were
pioneered in 1997, more than 1.5
million have been undertaken, including
over 100,000 in the UK alone.
In 2006, orthopaedic surgeons Alister
Hart and John Skinner noticed that
many patients who had MOM hips had a
relatively high level of unexplained pain,
severe enough to require revision surgery
to replace the original parts. This revision
surgery is often challenging as the cobalt
and chromium released from the MOM
hip replacements can cause irrepairable
damage to the muscles and ligaments of
the hip joint. The London Implant Retrieval
Centre (LIRC) opened in 2008, with the aim
of radically improving clinical outcomes
for patients undergoing hip replacements
and revision surgery. The LIRC collects
failed hips – equivalent to the black box
flight recorder of an aircraft – so that
lessons can be learnt for future patients.
Design, precision and specialisation
Founded with funding from the British
Orthopaedic Association and nine
manufacturers, the LIRC’s specialists
include biomedical engineer Professor
Gordon Blunn of UCL and Professor Alister
Hart, Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon at
the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital
NHS Trust. Their team has implemented and
managed the first global retrieval program
for medical implants. This sees them
unravelling the complicated relationship
between surgical positioning, implant
design and patient factors that can lead to
good or bad performance in hip implants.
“A failed implant is like a black
box of an aircraft. It holds
vital information that can help
understand why it failed,”
says Professor Hart.
So far, the LIRC has investigated this
problem using 5,000 components from
over 2,500 patients in over 20 countries.
Since 2011, their research has focused on
the examination of microscopic wear and
corrosion at the tapered junction between
head and stem parts of MOM implants.
From the organisation’s inception, their
insights have driven regulatory changes
and new protocols for standards, clinical
management, monitoring, safety and
patient care around the globe.
Expertise that’s in demand
In 2014, Professors Blunn and Hart were
awarded the UCL Consultants ‘Consultant
of the Year’ Award for their work. “It is a
pleasure working with Gordon and Alister and
it has been highly gratifying negotiating and
facilitating the agreements for their projects,
which ultimately allow us to gain a deeper
understanding of the pitfalls of the past and
future ways forward for implant technology,”
says Cameron Logan of UCL Consultants.
Blunn and Hart have been involved in
consultancy projects with a total overall value
of £2 million over the last two years, including
a number of Expert Witness consultancies for
law firms relating to failed MOM replacements.
With its cutting edge analysis of hip
replacement failures and state-ofthe-art solutions, the LIRC are sure
to remain pioneers of MOM implant
expertise for a long time to come.
About us
About UCL
UCL (University College London) was
established in 1826 and is ranked as
one of the world’s top-ten universities.
The university is a modern, outwardlooking institution, with more than 4,000
academic and research staff committed
to engaging with the major issues of our
times. It has a global reach, with 34%
of its students coming from outside the
UK, from almost 140 countries.
www.ucl.ac.uk
About UCL Consultants
UCL Consultants Ltd was established
by UCL to bring its academics together
with national and international clients,
providing access to UCL’s leading-edge
expertise and world-class facilities.
UCL Consultants offers a one-stop
office for academics wishing to carry
out consultancy work, providing
comprehensive contractual, tendering
and administrative support, enabling
UCL staff to ensure timely, high-quality
delivery to meet clients’ requirements.
It has extensive experience in
working with a wide variety of clients
including multinational, governmental
organisations, space agencies,
international companies and SME’s.
UCL Consultants is affiliated with UCL
Enterprise, which provides UCL’s
structures for engaging with business for
commercial and societal benefit.
www.uclconsultants.com
www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise
For more information see:
www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise
About Consultancy
Consultancy at UCL plays a major role
in showcasing the offerings from our
academic community to the commercial
world and generating research impact.
UCL Consultants Ltd (UCLC) is the
consultancy arm of UCL representing
UCL staff undertaking consultancy
work for external organisations. UCL
staff undertake consultancy for industry,
governments and global corporations,
as well as public bodies and SMEs on
projects that can range from a short
term, one-day consultancy, through
to large multi-party projects, providing
a gateway to the critical specialist
knowledge available across the
university’s 100 departments.
www.uclconsultants.com