Occurrence of mercury in the knee joint tissues

Introduction: Mercury is one of the elements that are commonly found in nature. This element is highly toxic, mainly affecting the nervous system, kidneys and lungs. Mercury ions can accumulate in bone and cartilage and build up behind calcium ions in carbonates and hydroxyapatites. High mercury concentrations in the spongy bone compared to the compacted bone were found. Aim: The aim of the manuscript was to assess the mercury content in tibial and femoral tissue taken from patients undergoing knee arthroplasty. Material and methods: Samples were taken from 17 patients (tibial and femoral bone samples), collected from patients who underwent knee arthroplasty. The tested samples were homogenized and determined by atomic absorption spectrometry and the AMA 254 amalgamation technique. Studies have shown mercury presence in all samples tested. Results and discussion: The range of mercury content in the tested samples was 3.3–19.18 μg/kg. The average for the examined bone tissue samples was 8.71 μg/kg, while for the tibia it was slightly higher (9.08 μg/kg), compared to the femur (8.34 μg/kg). There was a high mercury content in men’s bone tissue (10.05 μg/kg), compared to women (8.15 μg/kg). In both sexes, higher levels of mercury in the tibia were found in men (11.08 μg/kg in men, and 8.24 μg/kg in women). Conclusions: The dependence between mercury concentration in bone tissue and the patient’s age, weight and BMI, the number of cigarettes smoked and the consumption of fish and seafood were checked. There were no statistically significant correlations between these indicators.