X3™ is THE next generation in polyethylene performance improvements.

It offers simultaneously:

• Structural fatigue strength better than conventional polyethylene (5,6)
• 97% wear reduction over conventional polyeythylene (11); greater than first generation highly crosslinked polyethylene (7)
• Oxidation resistance similar to virgin polyethylene (8,9)

As a pioneer in wear performance technologies, Stryker® Orthopaedics has been dedicated to offering bearing surface improvements.

Introduced in 1998, the clinical success of Crossfire has been highlighted in studies such as those presented by James D’Antonio, MD (1).

• Mean 5-year follow up.
• No structural failures.
• 72% reduction in total annual wear thus far.

Robert Krushell, MD and Richard Fingeroth, MD also presented Crossfire data at the 2005 ORS (2).

• ORS mean 4-year follow-up.
• 58% reduction of linear head penetration compared with standard polyethylene.
• No oxidation related failures in retrievals up to 5 years.

Steve Kurtz, PhD, et al presented a poster at the 2005 AAOS (3).

• Implanted for period of time between 0 and 4.8 years, with none retrieved for wear or osteolysis.
• Minimal creep and wear was observed in retrievals.

In 2005 Bo Nivbrant, MD, PhD, presented mean 4.5 years RSA data at the 51st annual ORS showing extremely low in vivo wear (4).

• 90% wear reduction over the 0.05mm/annum suggested as a clinically safe level.

Traditional crosslinking consists of a two-step process involving both irradiation and a subsequent heat treatment step. Stryker’s patented annealing process provided wear reduction without compromising structural strength.

Building upon the clinical success of Crossfire® Polyethylene, Stryker developed a 3rd generation annealing process with three sequential irradiation/annealing steps to create X3™ Polyethylene.