Corrosion of implantable medical devices can have deleterious effects on the device performance or may result in the release of corrosion products with harmful biological consequences; therefore, it is important to determine the general corrosion behavior as well as the susceptibility of the devices to localized corrosion.

The forming and finishing steps used to create an implantable device may have significant effects on the corrosion resistance of the material out of which the device is fabricated. During the selection process of a material for use as an implantable device, testing the corrosion resistance of the material is an essential step; however, it does not necessarily provide critical data regarding device performance.

To accommodate the wide variety of device shapes and sizes encountered, a variety of holding devices can be used.

Note that the method is intentionally designed to reach conditions that are sufficiently severe to cause breakdown and deterioration of the medical devices and that these conditions may not be necessarily encountered in vivo. The results of this corrosion test conducted in artificial physiological electrolytes can provide useful data for comparison of different device materials, designs, or manufacturing processes. However, note that this test method does not take into account the effects of cells, proteins, and so forth on the corrosion behavior in vivo.

1.1 This test method assesses the corrosion susceptibility of small, metallic, implant medical devices, or components thereof, using cyclic (forward and reverse) potentiodynamic polarization. Examples of device types that may be evaluated by this test method include, but are not limited to, vascular stents, ureteral stents (Specification F 1828), filters, support segments of endovascular grafts, cardiac occluders, aneurysm or ligation clips, staples, and so forth.

1.2 This test method is used to assess a device in its final form and finish, as it would be implanted. These small devices should be tested in their entirety. The upper limit on device size is dictated by the electrical current delivery capability of the test apparatus (see Section ). It is assumed that test methods, such as Reference Test Method G 5 and Test Method G 61 have been used for material screening.

1.3 Because of the variety of configurations and sizes of implants, this test method provides a variety of specimen holder configurations.

1.4 This test method is intended for use on implantable devices made from metals with a relatively high resistance to corrosion.

This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.