Asymmetric design of hip socket for reducing socket deformations

Abstract

A hip socket for use in a hip joint prosthesis comprising a shaft on which a ball head may be fixed, the ball head may be rotatably inserted in a socket insert and the socket insert may be inserted and fixed in the hip socket the shaft and the hip socket being implantable in the thigh bone and the pelvic bone respectively. Damages to the socket insert and/or limitation of the function of the sliding pair of ball head/socket insert may be avoided by local reduction of the calotte diameter of the socket insert, such that the hip socket has an asymmetrical design with regard to the stiffness and/or geometry thereof in two different directions (x, y) orthogonal to each other and to the symmetry axis (z) of the hip socket.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.