Prosthetic implant and method of making same

Abstract

This invention solves the above identified limitation by providing a prosthetic implant having a porous surface layer metallurgically bonded to the implant body, wherein a barrier film of metal is positioned between a portion of the porous surface layer and the implant body at areas of stress. By preventing bonding and thereby the formation of notches at strategic locations about the implant, the overall fatigue strength of the implant may be increased. In the preferred embodiment, the film of metal is formed from molybdenum which has a higher melting temperature than titanium which is commonly used for porous layers and the implant body. By preventing notches at strategically significant areas about the implant, designers of prosthetic implants are less limited in the amount or location of the porous surface layer to be metallurgically bonded to the implant.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.