Tall-Statured Patients Have Similar Outcomes to Normal Height Patients after Primary Total Hip Arthroplasty

Abstract

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) has been proven to be a safe and efficacious operation; however, there is a paucity of literature on outcomes in patients in the 99th percentile for height. The objectives of this study were to identify differences in (1) implant selection, (2) operative times, (3) intraoperative and postoperative complications, (4) 90-day readmission, (5) all cause reoperation rates, and (6) hospital length of stay (LOS), in tall-statured patients compared with a matched control cohort. An electronic research request was used to identify 12,850 patients who underwent THA from January 2012 to December 2016 with minimum 1-year follow-up at a single health care system for retrospective chart review. Patients were identified in the 99th percentile for height (193 cm for males and 177 cm for females) and then matched to controls based on gender, race, age, body mass index, and Charlson comorbidity index. A total of 260 THA patients (2%) were identified in the 99th percentile for height. The tall-statured patients were then matched to 248 patients of normal stature. The exclusion criteria was met by 172 tall-statured patients and 165 normal-statured patients. Final analysis comprised of 86 tall-statured patients (100 THA) and 83 matched normal-statured patients (92 THA). Baseline demographics information and the outcomes of interest were then compared. The mean height of the female patients in the tall cohort was 181.01 ± 2.51 cm compared with 166.6 ± 6.98 cm for the control group (p < 0.001), while it was 195.25 ± 4.03 cm for male patients in the tall cohort and 174.11 ± 4.63 cm for the control cohort (p < 0.001). Tall-statured patients had larger acetabular cups (p < 0.001) and femoral head (p = 0.046) components. There were no differences in reoperation (p = 0.282), 90-day readmissions (p = 0.862), intraoperative fractures (p = 0.228), postoperative complications (p = 0.678), operative times (p = 0.890), and LOS (p = 0.099) between the tall-statured and normal-statured patients. Patients that are in the 99th percentile for height have similar outcomes to patients that are of normal height. The level of evidence of this study is level 3.