Primary total hip arthroplasties have reported success rates of greater than 95% in many series with a longer than 10-year follow-up. Revision total hip arthroplasty due to such factors as increased high-activity levels, younger patients undergoing the procedure and increasing life expectancy has become more prevalent. An understanding of the mechanisms and timing of total hip arthroplasty failure can direct efforts aimed at reducing revision rates. This study was conducted to evaluate the indications for revision hip arthroplasty and relate these to the time after the index primary hip arthroplasty. A review of all revision hip arthroplasties at two centres over a 6-year time period identified 225 patients who underwent 237 revisions. The overall mean time to revision was 83 months (range: 0-360 months). The cause of failure was aseptic loosening in 123 hips (51.9%), instability in 40 hips (16.9%) and infection in 37 hips (5.5%). When stratified into two groups (less than 5 years, more than 5 years after the index primary hip arthroplasty), 118 of 237 (50%) revisions occurred in less than 5 years, with 33% due to instability and 24% resulting from infection. The majority of the causes of failure within 5 years in these early revisions were instability and deep infection. The success of hip arthroplasty is likely to be compromized if technical aspects of the surgery for appropriate component positioning and critical protocols to minimise complications such as infection are not given the proper attention.
Core decompression procedures have been used in osteonecrosis of the femoral head to attempt to delay the joint destruction that may necessitate hip arthroplasty. The efficacy of core decompressions has been variable with many variations of technique described. To determine whether the efficacy of this procedure has improved during the last 15 years using modern techniques, we compared recently reported radiographic and clinical success rates to results of surgeries performed before 1992. Additionally, we evaluated the outcomes of our cohort of 52 patients (79 hips) who were treated with multiple small-diameter drillings. There was a decrease in the proportion of patients undergoing additional surgeries and an increase in radiographic success when comparing pre-1992 results to patients treated in the last 15 years. However, there were fewer Stage III hips in the more recent reports, suggesting that patient selection was an important reason for this improvement. The results of the small-diameter drilling cohort were similar to other recent reports. Patients who had small lesions and were Ficat Stage I had the best results with 79% showing no radiographic progression. Our study confirms core decompression is a safe and effective procedure for treating early stage femoral head osteonecrosis.
A variety of nonvascularized bone grafting techniques have been proposed with varying degrees of success as treatment alternatives for osteonecrosis of the femoral head. The success of these procedures may be enhanced using ancillary growth and differentiation factors. We retrospectively reviewed 33 patients (39 hips) with osteonecrosis of the hip who had nonvascularized bone grafting procedures with supplemental OP-1. We compared the outcomes in this cohort to similar patients treated nonoperatively or with other nonvascularized bone grafting procedures. We used a trapdoor to make a window at the head-neck junction to remove necrotic bone and packed the excavated area with autogenous cancellous bone graft, marrow, and OP-1. The minimum followup was 24 months (mean, 36 months; range, 24-50 months). We performed no further surgery in 25 of 30 small- and medium-sized lesions (80%) but did in two of nine large lesions. Hips with Ficat Stage II disease were not reoperated in 18 of 22 cases during the followup periods. Our short-term results compare similarly to nonoperative treatment and other reports of nonvascularized bone grafting. With the addition of ancillary growth factors, these procedures effectively reduce donor site morbidity and may defer joint arthroplasty in selected patients.
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